The Dragon Fest
by luvr4fantanim
Summary: After the Grand Magic Games, Mavis notices that no Dragon Slayer managed to defeat a dragon. So, she takes it upon her own hands to give them a teacher, even if it is one that is connected to her past and Zeref's. As Natsu and Lucy go in search for this teacher, they find out that the guild's past is not all that it seems. NaLu. OCs. Spoilers until ch340
1. The End of the GMG

_**Well then, long time no see... I know that I have only been reading stories for the last years... So this is my first Fanfiction in a while. I decided to make it on the Fairy Tail world because... I have a lot of theories on what is going to happen from now on.. So I **_**had_ to write something to get them out of my head. :) _**

_**It's going to follow the manga up to chapter 340.. After that it could probably be considered AU... Well, that depends on what Mashima decides to do with the story at least. **_

_**Regarding pairings, I am going to include NaLu mostly... It's going to be a slow NaLu though. **_

_**Warnings: probably a little cussing and violence along the story (we do have a lot of impulsive characters over here!) and, yes, there are going to be OCs. **_

_**Anyway, here's the first chapter. Enjoy!**_

* * *

**Chapter 1: The End of the Grand Magic Games**

* * *

Magnolia, Fairy Tail Guild

One of the things that Mavis missed most from her days at Fairy Tail were the parties.

Back when she was Master, they celebrated the end of an era, and the start of a new adventure with the creation of the guild. She was sure that, despite everything, the Second was also a big party fan during his time at the guild. And now, looking upon this generation of Fairy Tail, they were definitely not different with Makarov as the Master.

"What did you to say to me, Flame Brain!?"

"You heard me, pervert!"

Well, Mavis thought with a smile, maybe they were a _little_ more violent. She looked around the guild happily from where she was sitting down at the top of the second floor. Natsu and Gray were starting a fight again, probably dragging one or two more members into it. Lucy and Levy were sitting not far away, but they were talking amongst themselves instead of getting hurt from the myriad of fists flying near them. The Strauss siblings were sitting near the bar along the Rainjinshu and Cana. Beside them, Charle, Happy and Wendy were there. Gajeel suddenly appeared beside Levy, leaving Pantherlily in her care before joining in the fight. Mavis was quite sure that the flash of blue nearby Erza belonged to Juvia watching Gray fight.

She decided that she liked this generation of Fairy Tail.

"So, what is it that you wanted to talk about, First?" She turned around to look at the current master waling to where she was sitting. His walk was wobbly and he swayed a bit from side to side almost comically, but she knew better than to believe that he was _completely_ drunk.

"Despite all this time, Fairy Tail can still throw quite a party," she smiled at him.

"Meh, you should see them at Fantasia. Those kids love going all out in that festival."

"At least they enjoy themselves!"

Makarov chuckled lightly. "Yes, they do. But I take it that's not why you brought me here. If you wanted more gossip information, Mira-chan could probably give you more details than I."

His tone was light, Mavis noted, and his lips still formed a smile. It was his eyes that were guarded. She turned her face to the boisterous guild once more.

"I met with Zeref a little while ago."

Makarov didn't say anything, but she could see that he tensed at the mention of his name. His smile was gone, as well as the swaying, probably sensing that this conversation was not going to be as happy as the guild members below them.

"So?"

"You know as well as I do the real reason behind his appearance at Tenrou Island. _That_ secret might not be so secret soon," she warned.

Makarov looked solemn. "You know that Laxus and Gildarts already know about _that_. Not to mention my own son. With their reactions in mind, I know that it still isn't the time for the whole guild to know."

It was a statement and she knew that she would not convince Makarov, at least not now.

"Well you _did_ show Gildarts the Lumen Histoire in hopes of him becoming the next Master. The others found out for themselves"

"_That_ was because he was supposed to be the next Master!" he groaned.

This time, Mavis did laugh at his expression.

After a short silence he continued.

"Seven Dragon Slayers against seven dragons, but not one of them managed to defeat one."

Makarov looked at Mavis seriously. " I know. That is why, starting tomorrow, I'm going to have a special mission for some of your children, including those three Dragon Slayers the guild has." Makarov raised an eyebrow at her comment.

"You are aware that because of the guilds popularity, requests are pouring in," he was happy about this. "Why is it necessary for them to take these "special" missions?"

"They need someone to teach them. They need _her_."

Makarov's eyes widened. "Mavis, you know that she has not been keen on helping the guild for a long time. What makes you think she would start now?"

"No, Makarov, she isn't keen on helping _me_," she smiled, but it did not reach her eyes. "I doubt she _hates_ the guild, not with all that we have been through."

Makarov sighed. "You already planned this out, didn't you?"

"You bet I do!" Mavis winked at him. "She may be stubborn, but I bet at least one of those three will be even more so."

"Although I can bet that will not happen without a good fight," Makarov answered, already feeling a headache coming on from the possible destruction it could generate.

Mavis laughed. "I doubt that any of them would be from Fairy Tail if that didn't happen!"

She smiled gently. " I already looked at the possibilities, Makarov. It does favor them."

"I never said they _wouldn't_ succeed." Mavis turned to look at Makarov's grin, "They _are_ my children after all."

* * *

Crocus, Capital of Fiore

"AHHHHHHHHH."

"You know, they say the screams from these dungeons can be heard only at the low levels of the castle. It's the reason why people are scared shitless to come down here," a female voice remarked.

"Enough," the Squadron Chief of Fiore, Arcadios, ordered, "I know the King hired you to find whoever had a link to the magic of the Dark Mage Zeref but-"

"Pumpkin Head would be glad I loosened _this_ guy's tongue, not that he could talk much anyway. His face creeps me out," the woman interrupted while pushing a boot on the victim's back, the hat that he usually wore fell down to reveal his blue face.

The woman flipped her long hair in pigtails as she glared at the Squadron Chief, not seeming to mind that her dress rode dangerously up her thigh, not that Arcadios was looking. He met her glare quite evenly.

"It's the KING. Not Pumpkin Head, you insolent girl. You should be more respectful before your manners get you in trouble one day."

She scoffed at this. "I've lived long enough to know _that's _not gonna happen soon."

Arcadios was about to retort again before he heard another voice coming down the stairs.

"Oh, I guess you found him."

Arcadios straightened up and saluted the King of Fiore, while glaring at the woman who didn't even straighten her posture. Toma didn't seem to notice, though.

"He was easy to sniff. Black magic isn't hard for me to find."

"What is his name, again?"

"Obuuura? Obira? Obra? Something like that," the woman waved the question away. "At least that's the name that can be matched with the members of Raven Tail from your records."

She kicked the victim again before straightening. Although, she barely came to his own shoulder, Arcadios noted.

"Now, since you have your prisoner, and I my information, I'll be going." She started to walk up the stairs to the outside of the dungeon before glancing at the corner of the room. "Let's go, Maureen."

A black cat, with smooth fur and walking more elegantly than even some noble girls that Arcadios has seen, jumped up to the woman's shoulder. The cat seemed to ignore everyone else except her.

Toma spoke up before she left. "You do know that your identity will not be so secret from here on out. Especially not when the Magic Council will start looking for more clues to find Zeref."

The woman didn't respond or stop walking. Arcadios bristled, "The KING spoke to you, girl."

She did stop at this and glared at him. "I'm not a girl," she smiled at the King, though, exposing her sharp canines. "I do know that, your majesty. I have already taken precautions."

The King smiled, "What I meant to convey with that is: Fairy Tail will come looking for you. Those people are persistent to find answers."

Arcadios was pleased to know that the grin vanished from the woman's face.

"If you don't talk, they won't find me easily," she warned.

The King held up a hand to stop what Arcadios was about to say.

"If you continue informing us about your findings concerning Zeref, not a word will be said," he vowed.

She rolled her eyes, but Arcadios could see that she relaxed somewhat. "Fine."

After that, she walked up the stairs and out of their lives, hopefully, Arcadios thought.

He sighed, "Would that be wise, my King? She didn't help the Fairies during the battle against the dragons. What's to say she would-"

"She will help us." Arcadios gave the King a surprised look.

"After all," the King continued, "dragons are known for their loyalty."

* * *

_**Well then, here's the end. Things are moving slowly up until now, but next chapter I'm going to start to implement Lucy's perspective mostly (since that's the way the manga originally started at least). Reviews are appreciated!**_

_Next chapter_

The Missions


	2. The Missions

**_Aaaaannnnddd it's done! I thought that this would take a bit longer... But thankfully I already had an idea what this chapter would look like :)_**

**_Thank you so much for the feedback! Even if it is just for following the story it helps me write :D_**

**_Anyway, now's the time to look at what Mavis has planned for our favorite mages... On with the story!_**

**_Warnings: a little bit of fluff (very little, but I like the pairings very much) and a bit of cussing. _**

* * *

**Chapter 2: The Missions**

* * *

Lucy Heartfillia's apartment, Magnolia

Lucy sighed happily into her bed in the early morning. Nothing like a good rest after a long magical competition in order to get back the guild's reputation.

From her point of view, things were back to normal, well, as normal as they could be considered to be before the seven-year time skip. Fairy Tail was once again the number one guild in Fiore, and with it they got back their building and the number of requests that people usually offered them.

Of course, the nice warm bath and rest she had after the party really made her day. She missed her nice, warm bed. After sleeping in hospital and hotel beds, the one in her bedroom seemed really comfortable! It was as if the pillow was made out of soft fur and her sheets had a nice warm temperature and …

Wait a minute.

Lucy's eyes snapped open only to be greeted by the faces of both of her teammates drooling and snoring away beside her.

Despite the fact that they formed an adorable picture, she did what any girl who suddenly finds a fire mage in the same bed would do: she kicked him out.

"WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!"

Natsu flied all the way to the other end of the room, while the noise he caused and Lucy's scream woke Happy up.

"… The fuck was that for?" he groaned. It was never pleasant to wake up to a screaming Lucy, and here he thought that she was starting to get used to this.

"Just five more minutes and I can catch the big fish…" Happy mumbled, already falling half asleep in her pillow again. Lucy sighed at this; suddenly her desires to wake the cat up got reduced.

At least until Happy started to claw at her pillow in order to "catch" the fish of his dreams.

"NOT MY PILLOW, CAT!"

Natsu managed to catch Happy this time.

"Woah, _someone's_ not a morning person."

"Well, _someone_ is meant to sleep in his own bedroom!"

"But your bed is much more comfortable!" Natsu whined, "Besides we get to spend more time with you this way, Lucy!"

"Aye!"

Lucy tried to fight down the blush that was coming upon her cheeks. She still couldn't get how her teammate's actions managed to turn her red, at least more than usual after Tenrou Island. Either way, pondering about it may lead her to suspect one or two things that would make their whole relationship much more complicated.

"A-A-Anyway… What do you want? Please do not tell me you just came here because you didn't have food in your-"

"FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODD!"

"Luucyyyyyy, breakfast!"

Crisis averted at least, Lucy thought as the two went running toward her kitchen. She then hurried after them before they managed to break something.

She forced them to sit down and _wait_ as she started to cook, but that didn't stop their chanting.

"Actually," Natsu interrupted himself, as if he remembered something, "Mira told us to get you to come to the guild early morning in order to speak to that ghost."

"Master Mavis is not a _ghost_, she's a _projection_, one that she made with her own magic," Lucy chided.

"Whatever."

"But now that you mentioned it," Lucy stopped what she was doing, "Don't you think it's weird that they asked us to go? Why would they do that?"

"Dunno," Natsu shrugged.

"Maybe Lucy ate too much at the party yesterday and they want to punish all of us!" Happy interjected seriously.

"That would only happen to _you, _CAT!"

"Maybe it's an extra special mission!" Natsu's eyes gleamed dangerously as he grinned. "Can't you smell the danger?"

"How on Earthland can one possibly "smell the danger"?!" Lucy retorted, "And isn't it too early? We just got here!"

"So what?" Natsu replied carelessly, "One or two more months away won't hurt a bit, AND it can give us more money."

"Aye!"

Lucy groaned but didn't protest any longer. She knew by now that, if anyone can convince her to do something crazy, it would be those two. However, she still couldn't help but worry as the Dragon Slayer and the Exceed started eating. She had a hunch that this had something to do with the Grand Magic Games, only this time the thought of it left her with a sense of foreboding.

* * *

Fairy Tail Guild, Magnolia

At least they weren't the only ones to be woken up early morning, Lucy thought as she entered the guild.

There weren't many customers at that time of day, and she knew from experience that the guild members wouldn't be fully awake until the next couple of hours. Still, she was glad to see many familiar faces sitting at Mirajane's booth.

Despite the horrible humor that Gajeel seemed to carry as an aura in the early morning, he still was awake enough to bicker with Natsu when the Fire Dragon Slayer arrived. Lucy thought it was rather cute that the Iron Dragon Slayer didn't seem to mind that Levy was dozing off beside him with Lily in her lap.

Wendy wasn't doing any better than her and, although Erza seemed to be up and alert already, she did glare at the two Dragon Slayers with such force that they stopped their fight in an instant.

Gray was sleeping at the bar beside her, but he woke up a bit to greet Lucy. She, on the other hand, was not surprised to feel _someone_ staring daggers at her back when they both started talking, but she guessed that Juvia was still half asleep somewhere since she didn't start fighting with her.

It wasn't long before the Master appeared before them.

"Well, now that we're all here," he began, "The First would like to say something to you, so shut up and listen."

However, when he turned around Mavis was not there. In fact, she was nowhere near him.

"Not this _again_! Not another Gildarts incident! First!"

"I'm coming!" To say that Makarov looked relieved was a small way to put it, "I just had to find something to eat! I got hungry!"

She appeared before them with a spoon in her mouth. "Oh good! You're already here!"

We've been here for some time now, Lucy thought, and how does a projection feed herself exactly?

"Well then, I'll be quick in telling you," she began with a smile, "The reason why I asked you to come here is because I'm assigning you all a special mission."

"A mission?" repeated Gray.

"I KNEW IT!" Natsu punched the air triumphantly, "Lucy, you owe me dinner."

"Since when did we bet on _any_thing?!"

"It's only fair! Oh, and by the way, my dinner is 500 fish." Happy remarked.

"Shut it, cat!"

"Anyway," the Master interrupted, "We will be separating you into teams. Mavis has already designed a strategy for this mission to be accomplished."

"What would be the purpose of this mission? Wouldn't it be too complicated to just leave the guild? I mean, with our recent return and popularity, requests will come in," Erza was quick to point out.

"That's why you're just asking _us_, isn't it? To leave other members like the Strauss siblings or the Raijinshuu for requests," Levy deduced.

Mavis nodded, "That's right!"

"Then, what's it about?" Lucy pressed.

"It must be because of a giant fish near Akane Beach!" said Happy.

"No, no Happy. It must be because of a really big treasure near Mt. Hakobe!" Natsu's eyes gleamed as he mentioned this, seeming more interested in keeping the treasure than the mission itself.

"There's no way it's just that, idiot." Gray interjected, miraculously losing his shirt in the process. Lucy swore she heard squealing when he did that and wondered when will Juvia finally appear before them.

"What did you just call me, ice prick?"

"You heard me, you hot-headed bastard."

Both mages glared at each other and started raising their fists.

"If you both shut your fucking mouths for more than five minutes, we might actually get to know what this damn mission is about," Gajeel interrupted, already annoyed that the briefing was taking longer than he thought.

Natsu turned his glare to him now. "At least I'm trying to guess here, metal brain. Or is your head so full of iron in the morning that it gets harder for you to think?"

"I'll show you just how fucking well I can think in the morning you-"

An evil aura managed to shut Gajeel up. The three glanced back at the red headed woman in the group.

"Be quiet, it's already taking long enough. No more interruptions, are we clear?"

"Aye!" Gray and Natsu answered immediately.

Gajeel just grumbled back to his seat as Levy patted his arm while holding her laughter.

Mavis smiled as if no destruction was about to take place inside the guild. "Anyway, each mission will serve a different purpose, but it all leads to a bigger picture."

She paused, and the others were a bit surprised by the seriousness in her eyes when she started talking again.

"400 years ago, the Dragon Civil War occurred, as I'm sure you are all aware. You must also know of the incident regarding Acnologia and the way that he started slaughtering dragons in his human form."

The three Dragon Slayers visibly cringed at this.

"After 17 years, the war was nearly ending by X409, but the dragons knew that they needed to stop these slayers if they wanted any peace with humans. So, in order to stop them, they decided to teach one human Crystal Dragon Slayer magic."

"Crystal?" Natsu wondered.

"Is there even such an element?" Wendy asked.

"Well we already know about a Jade dragon, why would a crystal be any different?" Lily remarked.

"I think the question would be: why would the crystal element be so special?" Charle asked.

"Well," Mavis answered, "Besides it's attack power like any Dragon Slayer, the Crystal Dragon Slayer could also learn a bit of sealing magic."

"In short," Makarov said, "This Dragon Slayer would be capable of sealing Acnologia and enable peace at the end of the war."

"However," Mavis continued, "because of Zeref's intervention in enabling the transformation of human Acnologia to a dragon, things got a bit complicated, and the Dragon Slayer was forced to seal herself off as well."

"_Her_self?" Lucy asked.

Mavis nodded at her. "This Dragon Slayer went by the name of Emily Crysdea."

Levy gasped, "I know that name. She went by the nickname Blood Diamond and was said to be one of the strongest Dragon Slayers, but also one of the most violent. I read about it in a history book… _She_ stopped the war?"

"You know what they say, there are two sides to a story," Mavis winked, "and now, it will be your job to find her!"

There was a slight pause after that.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but… Humans don't have the tendency of living nearly 400 years do they?" said Lucy, "How exactly are we supposed to find her?"

"Now correct _me_ if I'm wrong but you did end up meeting a supposedly dead dark mage in an island as well as a projection of a master who is over a hundred years all still alive and kicking." Mavis smiled at her.

"Well that is true… But wasn't she sealed off?"

"And besides the fact that we need to somehow find her, why would we actually need to do so?" Erza also asked

Mavis sighed, "You must have noticed in the last battle that _none_ of the Dragon Slayers managed to defeat a dragon."

Gajeel gritted his teeth just by remembering it, it was annoying that they couldn't live up to their names. Natsu didn't say a word, but his stillness in itself was a response.

"In order to answer both your questions," Mavis said to the girls, "you must remember that Acnologia _did_ manage to come back. The reason for this is that Zeref released his seal about 250 years ago. And by releasing Acnologia he would also have released Emily."

She turned to look at the three Dragon Slayers. "What we need her for is this: you three need to learn how to really slay a dragon, and she could possibly be the only person in Earthland that can teach you."

"How do we know she's still alive?" Wendy asked.

"Trust me," Mavis answered, "I know."

She let the information sink in. Natsu was the one to break the silence.

"I really didn't get most of it," he began, causing various people to face palm, "But we just got to find this Emil girl and make her teach us advanced Dragon Slayer stuff, no?"

"It's _Emily_, Natsu," Lucy sighed, but smiled afterwards, "But I guess it really is just that simple."

"Interesting. I'm betting she'll be a good person to spar with," Natsu grinned, "I'm getting fired up."

The rest smiled at the fire mage, and Lucy was once again glad to have him as a teammate. He always managed to lift the spirits of people somehow.

"Alright then, now for your missions," Mavis continued happily, "I'm sure you can guess by now that, since Emily is considered to be dead that she has laid low somehow. Which is another reason why you all would be going on separate missions. That way you can be "focused" on the mission and at the same time you will be keeping a lookout for her."

"The First has already selected the missions that she thought will have the highest probabilities of you finding her," said Makarov.

"OK, first team is… Levy, Lily and Gajeel," Lucy thought that Mavis's eyes gleamed mischievously, "You will be heading back to Crocus to investigate Zeref's involvement in the games. Not to mention that you will be able to take a look at the library for more information."

"The library? Do you mean the ROYAL library?" Gajeel could practically see stars in Levy's eyes as she said this.

"Hm, it would be wise to gain some intel on the enemy while we are already inside there," Lily nodded.

Gajeel didn't look as pleased, though.

"Tch, why do _we_ have to go? It seems more like a stupid research mission to me."

"Make no mistake, Gajeel," the Dragon Slayer cringed a bit as Mavis approached his face, "Crocus _is_ dangerous. The higher the position, the more manipulative people are." Gajeel thought that manipulation skills were not only limited to Crocus.

"It would be correct to protect Levy, Gajeel. After all, you do not want her to come to harm," Lily smirked as he said this.

Levy blushed a bit, while Gajeel gritted out a "whatever" at the statement.

Mavis giggled, "Next team is… Gray and Juvia," she started looking around for the water mage.

"Juvia is coming too?!" Suddenly she appeared beside Gray, as if she was standing there the whole time.

"How long have you been here?!" Gray exclaimed, surprised to see her appear.

Lucy thought it was rather obvious she was here in the first place.

"Anyway," Gray continued, "Why us two? We don't use any Dragon Slayer magic."

Juvia looked happy that he didn't seem to mind them being paired up.

"Well, Emily would get spooked if we started sending _only_ Dragon Slayers to missions." Mavis chided, "Besides, I get the feeling that this will interest you… You will be meeting with Crime Sorciere."

Erza perked up at the mention of that.

"Them?" Gray asked.

"Wouldn't Erza-san be more suited for this?" Juvia asked.

"She does _liiiikeee_ a certain mem-"Happy began.

Mavis ignored the sudden blush and almost pummeling that Erza unleashed on the cat. "Actually, they have a village that is missing water near Akane Beach. They want us to investigate the cause."

"Crime Sorciere…" Gray's eyes turned a bit solemn.

Juvia looked at him nervously and began talking to him, "Well, Gray-sama, we'll-"

"Can't I go alone?" Gray interrupted a bit harshly. Juvia looked a bit sad at his comment, but didn't remark as usual. Mavis, meanwhile, turned to look at him.

"My strategic magic tells me that it would be best if-"

"Juvia would go anyway."

Gray turned to look at her and was surprised to see that her sad look was replaced by a determined one.

"It _did_ say water anyway. Juvia's powers could be needed." She continued.

They stared at each other for a while, before Gray ran a hand through his hair and muttered a "fine" which caused Juvia to snap back to her usual self and started fantasizing about the trip and the possible motel incidents that could occur in it.

Mavis smiled, "Now that it's settled… The third team will be Erza, Charle and Wendy. You will go to the National Council near Crocus in order to visit the prisoner Cobra."

"Cobra? You mean the Oracion 6 member?" Erza asked.

"He mentioned some unsettling information about Hades's doors opening to Dorambolt," said Makarov, "Wendy would be your key inside the prison, the teleporter does have a soft spot for her and Cobra can relate to you best of all."

Erza nodded, remembering the Tower of Heaven briefly. "Alright."

"Count on us," Wendy added.

"And finally the remaining team will be: Lucy, Happy and Natsu."

Lucy and Natsu high fived each other as Happy flew around them.

"You will be in charge of investigating recent attacks to a village near the Waas Forest, it's nearby where Cait Shelter used to be," Makarov told them, "They say that it's just some animal roaming about, but the Council has found Dark Magic around the incident."

"Dark… magic…"Lucy stuttered nervously.

"Don't worry, Luce," Natsu smiled at her, "We'll all be together won't we? We can kick their asses AND find Emil for sure!"

Lucy smiled warmly at him. "EMILY, Natsu, and yes we will!"

"Just as a sidenote," Makarov began, "This mission is the one with the highest probability of finding the Dragon Slayer."

"Meh, no sweat. We just beat her and drag her back here! Let's go, Lucy!" He grabbed her hand and bolted to the door, Happy following them, "The sooner we start running over there, the sooner we can go to an adventure!"

"Running? Wait, what? Natsuuuuuu!"

* * *

After everyone left to prepare for their own missions, Makarov sent an amused look at Mavis.

"You've been speaking to Mira-chan, haven't you?"

"Why do you say that?" Mavis asked innocently.

"It's unlikely for most of the teams to be set like_that_."

"It is what will bring out the best results," she smiled sweetly at him, "It's not my problem they have some issues to resolve at the same time."

"… … I really need to stop leaving you alone with Mira-chan."

* * *

_**And now, the ball is rolling. :D I'll be writing some more action in the chapters to come... This one was necessary to explain the situation to all.**_

_**On the other hand, if there are any spelling mistakes, I am sorry. Typing for some time without a shift key can cause that. **_

_**I guess you can see what the shippings will be like, of course, I'll be placing what goes on in each mission in the chapters to come, but there will be more focus on Team Natsu ;)**_

_**If any of you are wondering about the locations, I did look up the maps of Earthland and Fiore in order to get them... if any of you are interested I can send you a link to the pictures in order to get a better idea of where the teams are going. **_

_**As for Emily's name I used the latin word for crystal "crys" and part of the word for goddess "dea". I bet you can guess who she is by now. **_

_**I'll probably update in a week. I just need to finish the chapter and reviewing it before uploading. Thankfully, I'm still on vacations so I do have a bit of spare time on my hands.**_

_**Anyway, any comments please review! Thank you for reading :D**_

_Next chapter_

The Village


	3. The Village

_**YOOOOOOOOOO... OK I have been on Tumblr way too much... I hope you are all doing well :)**_

_**Thank you so much for the feedback! :D Some of you have sent me PMs and others follows and favorites and trust me, it really means a lot :) Anyway, I hope you like the next part of the story... Here is where the plot finally gets to unfold. (finally..)**_

_**Now... I don't really want to rant up here so... on with the story!**_

_**Warnings: There's a little bit of violence on this one... If there's a need to up the rating because of it please tell me :) **_

* * *

**Chapter 3: The Village**

* * *

Train Station, Magnolia

"We really should've just ran," Natsu groaned, as the train started moving, already feeling his motion sickness kicking in.

"Come now, we really would not have made it to the village on time if we actually ran," Lucy replied smoothly.

"How long is this train ride going to take, Lucy?" asked Happy, already concerned for his partner's health.

"Well, I guess after we pass Oshibana, it's a direct train ride to the outskirts of the Waas Forest. Then, it's walking until we reach the village, although, the train ride will take more than a couple hours…" Lucy shot a concerned glance at the Dragon Slayer, who was already looking pale.

"Ngh…. Whyyyyyyy… bleh," mumbled Natsu as he rested his head in the window. The cool helped… somewhat.

Happy sighed, and then proceeded to announce that he shall sleep for the rest of the ride, while curling up beside Lucy.

The Stellar mage smiled, she may like Happy but she adored it when he was actually calm. It reminded her of his cat tendencies, such as purring when she scratched behind his ears.

It had been a long time since it was just the three of them in a mission, and she would be lying if she said that she didn't miss it. After the Grand Magic Games, the world became more complex as they skipped the last seven years. She still couldn't believe how much had actually changed, both for better and for worse.

Which reminded her, maybe she'll pay a visit to her parents' grave when she returned. She still felt a certain calmness talking to them, or writing her letters to her mother.

"Ad… bleah… ven… shuureee… mph…" mumbled Natsu, catching her off guard.

Lucy giggled. He really surprised her sometimes, still being able to talk despite that horrible sickness he must be having. Well, he was always rather reckless, but she liked it that he surprised her sometimes. It was one of the things she looked forward to in missions, despite the fact that more than often it got them into trouble.

Her thoughts wandered off to what Future Rouge said. How many more missions will they have before the incident that's supposed to happen in a year? Before the named "final battle"? Her future self _had_ mentioned something about wanting to have more adventures…

She always got a chill when she remembered Future Lucy. She knew that her future counterpart was only a couple of years older than her, but already she had looked more haunted. Lucy still couldn't forget the reaction she had just by _seeing_ Natsu. Had something happened to him?

Lucy turned to look at the slumped figure by the window. Is _that_ how she would be without him?

It wasn't that she was dependant on him. Everyone knows that she had been trying so hard lately to make a stand for herself. She just … She considered him important. Not exactly family, just important. She couldn't imagine her life if Natsu hadn't wandered in, especially now that Fairy Tail was such an important part in her life. She just knew that, if Natsu were to disappear, it would be the one incident that would hurt the most.

Why? Lucy pondered over it for a while.

He _was_ her teammate, but so were Gray and Erza more than often. He _was_ her best friend, but Levy was also one of them and yet, she couldn't place them both in the same category. Loke, the next guy who was closer to her other than Gray, also fit into a category of his own, but mostly because she knew the relationship between a spirit and his master was special in itself.

Then… What was he, exactly?

"Lucyyyyyyyyy."

Lucy snapped out of her reverie to look at the fire mage in question, only to find his head suddenly on her lap.

"WAH! Hey!" Lucy remarked, "I'm not a bed!"

"Mph…. comfortable… buh… helps…"

Lucy sighed, she could solve her inner turmoil later, but for now, she had these two by her side, and that's all that mattered. She smiled. She would probably get nagged at if she gave such a great fuss from meeting her counterpart, after all, they _did_ change the future.

After a while, she started dozing off, absently stroking Natsu's hair with one hand and Happy's fur with another.

During her musings, she might not have noticed how he looked at her when she started thinking. She might not have noticed that he gripped her skirt beneath his heat tighter than usual as he tried to keep his nausea at bay. She might not have noticed how her hand in his hair actually relaxed him.

But what she definitely _didn't_ notice was _his_ turmoil, the one that was also caused by her future counterpart.

The one that would probably change their entire relationship as it is now.

* * *

Cart to Akane Beach

Juvia couldn't believe that, after everything that happened, she was once again going on a mission alone with Gray-sama.

All she could think about were those last few words: Mission. Alone. With. Gray-sama.

She sighed into her hand while looking outside the window of the cart they had boarded to meet up with Crime Soricere. The mission seemed pretty important for them to be asking for help personally, which is why she decided something last night as she prepared herself for today.

This mission will be _the_ mission. In this one, she will show Gray-sama just how Juvia 2.0 is better than the past versions of her. Not that there was anything wrong with her past versions, but she thought that maybe this way it'll be better for both of them.

She could already see it now.

First, he'll congratulate her for saving everyone or at least for playing a major part in their success. Then, he'll hug her and twirl her around because he'll be happy about her achievements. Then, they'll kiss. Then, he'll take her to their hotel room because he _finally_ figured out that he couldn't get enough of her and-

"Kyaaaaaaaa!" She held her face as her fantasies went wild.

Gray wasn't paying any attention to her, though. It wasn't that he didn't enjoy spending time with her (he had gone to missions with her previously and they had talked just fine… sometimes). Most of all it was because he didn't really want many people to know about what really happened during the Grand Magic Games.

Quite simply, he didn't like it. He didn't like knowing what it felt to die. He didn't like knowing how it felt to have regrets and, especially, he didn't like knowing the cost of getting his life _back_.

Fine, so he did take the mission simply because Ultear's team was mentioned (_past_ team, he reminded himself sourly). He just needed to know _exactly_ what happened. Or why it had happened.

It wasn't that the whole experience was a bad one. He did take on a whole new perspective in life, he figured out that he really should stop lying to himself about some things. And for now that meant succeeding on this mission with no set backs so he could get rid of these unwanted feelings of her death.

Closure, he repeated to himself, for closure.

He gazed at the squealing girl in front of him. He _had _thought that the whole Juvia-being-his-fan thing would wear off after he told her that he wouldn't return her feelings in the dance at the King's palace. The whole ordeal with her was way too confusing.

He still couldn't understand why he had thrown himself in front of her. Sure he would've done it for Lucy or Erza as well, but the sheer panic before it caused him to use his body instead of a shield or instead of grabbing her, and _that_ was not normal.

He shook his head a little. No use dwelling on it, the fact remained that he did it and, for now, he placed it on the category that he probably considered her to be a rather important nakama.

And maybe, just maybe, Juvia would begin to understand that and they could form their team more frequently, after all they are a good combination.

He heard her squeal once more.

_Maybe._

It wasn't that he minded the whole thing, to be honest he had grown to get used to it. It was just… Just…

Just what? Unrealistic? A simple crush? He really didn't understand why that bothered him so much. It seemed so contradictory with what he was trying to get her to do.

He sighed, thoughts like this made his brain hurt.

"Juvia," he spoke and she immediately snapped her gaze onto him. Sometimes it really surprised him how he could suddenly become the center of her attention.

He cleared his throat. "First of all, I meant everything I said at the dance before. You do understand that?"

Juvia smiled and nodded. "Juvia understands Gray-sama's answer. But that doesn't mean that Juvia won't continue trying, after all Juvia has grown and wants to show Gray-sama that Juvia is better than before."

A light pink dusted Gray's cheeks at her determination, but he willed it away quickly. He didn't want to go back on his words.

"O…K… Then, I want to tell you that this mission is important to me. So, you must understand that I won't let _anything_ stand in the way of it succeeding."

Juvia noticed that Gray's eyes turned distant and, once again, she became worried.

Lately, Gray-sama had been acting strangely, more specifically ever since the end of the Grand Magic Games. She decided that now was the time to find out why.

"Does this have something to do with … with what happened at the Grand Magic Games?" she asked softly.

Gray flinched a little, but then met her stare evenly. He stayed like that long enough to cause her to start blushing again. Mostly because Gray-sama was staring at her deeply and then maybe he'll reach out and-

"It really is none of your business."

And there it was, the same cold voice that rejected her at the dance. The same voice that told her that there was nothing wrong with him when they returned to Magnolia. It wasn't harsh, it just sounded… empty.

She noted that Gray turned to look at the window after that, ending their conversation. Then, Juvia decided on another thing. She must find out what was going on with Gray-sama because, otherwise…

She sighed.

For the first time in a mission with Gray-sama, she thought it was going to be a long trip.

* * *

Waas Forest

"Have I ever mentioned how much I love walking? Seriously, we should've just run over here. We get to travel AND we train."

Lucy sighed at Natsu revitalized figure. He had gained his strength once he had stepped foot off the train.

"As I have said _before_, we never would have made it in time AND we would've been exhausted," she replied.

"Not me! I can fly!" Happy chirped.

"Not now, cat!"

"Anyway… Natsu, do you know where the village is?" asked Happy. They _had_ been following him for quite a while now.

"Oh yeah…" Natsu remarked, "I was just walking around… hehe."

"You don't even know where you're _going?_!" Lucy hoped that they weren't that far away from the target. "I hope the person requesting us doesn't have a short temper for lateness," she mumbled.

She was relieved to find out that they were not far off track. "Thankfully, we just need to head a little more to the right and we can make it in time," she said while checking the map that Mavis had given her to find the village. She smiled then.

Natsu smiled right back, "See, Lucy. No need to worry, it all works out in the end."

"As usual, you overreacted." Happy noted.

"I WHAT?"

Both Happy and Natsu laughed and continued teasing Lucy for a while…

Until Natsu stopped.

The other two teammates turned to look at his suddenly serious face.

"I smell something funny."

He really couldn't explain it otherwise. It was like a chill in the air, a bad one. He turned around frantically to discover its direction. But where…?

His eyes fell on a black cat in front of them. Frankly, he was surprised he didn't notice it before, which caused him to tense up immediately. Both Happy and Lucy also turned to look at it.

If he could describe it in one word it would be elegant. Standing on its hind legs in a relaxed posture and wearing a purple skirt that fitted her color perfectly… Wait a minute; regular cats don't actually do _that_.

"Isn't that…" Lucy started.

But before she could finish, the cat smiled at them and leaped into the bushes.

"Hey wait!" Natsu yelped and ran after her.

"An Exceed!" Happy was not far behind him.

"Wait you two!" But Lucy could see that there was no stopping them. She groaned and then started running after them as well.

It wasn't long before she bumped into Natsu's back. At first, she blushed, but then she saw that he didn't react to the bump.

"What's wrong?"

Happy didn't look back from what he was staring as he replied, "Lucy… look." He pointed at something in front of them.

Lucy sidestepped Natsu to get a better view… But what she saw shocked her.

They seemed to be standing on some sort of hilltop with trees surrounding them from behind. In front of them, a clearing stretched out as far as the eye could see.

That clearing was filled out with dark ruins of houses that were destroyed, smashed, and burnt to dust. In the center of all of it rose a high tower… Of _what_ Lucy could not say. Mostly what gave her the chills was the emptiness of it all.

She could spot blood on the grass and on the walls of certain houses. She could see objects strewn about, as they lay forgotten in the ground. She could smell death and tears and despair al around.

"Is … this?"

Natsu nodded solemnly.

"This is… the village."

* * *

**_AAAANDDD CLIFFHANGER._**

**_Yes, that is the village of the request that was sent to Lucy and Natsu, if there are any doubts. _**

**_Concerning the part of Gray and Juvia, yes we will be dealing with their whole... THING... in later chapters. I actually DO ship them, just that I don't think that Gray would suddenly wake up one day and start saying I LOVE YOU to Juvia. They have deepened their relationship, though. That much I can agree. _**

**_As for Ultear's death... When I first read about it all I could think of was how much it could impact on all of the Guild.. But as I got to read later chapters I sort of got the idea that she really didn't tell that many people about it.. And that Gray didn't really tell people about it either. _**

**_Now, I do think that Gray did consider her as family... So, I remember that, when a family member dies (I've had personal experience on this one) there are regularly two steps of mourning. First, when you find out about it.. And then when you get closure. I remember that I cried on two different days when my grandmother died. And I believe that the first time that Gray realized what she did he DID mourn her... but only the first time. So, what he would be looking for right now would be closure, which is what I'm going to implement in future chapters as well. _**

**_I hope I did well going into both Juvia and Gray's heads. I can relate to Lucy easier, so it's easier to write her...But I hope the others weren't too out of character. _**

**_Either way, I hoped you enjoyed it :) I'll probably update until next weekend. I already have the next chapter planned out, though ;) _**

_**Anyway, any comments please review or PM! Thank you for reading :D**_

_Next chapter_

The Warnings


	4. The Warnings

_**Hello :) I know I know... I have been writing other things and neglecting this chapter.. But it is LONG. Heheh I hope you like it :D**_

_**Thank you for the reviews :D As well as your follows and favorites on any of my stories :) I also love reading your PMs and opinions, they really make me giddy inside :3**_

_**Now... here we go, on with the chapter. This time we get to see Erza and Wendy as well as Gajeel and Levy :) **_

_**Warnings: Well... There are more graphic scenes (violence people, violence). If this needs to go up a rating I may do so.. I'll just leave it at T in this one, but in battle scenes later I may up it a notch.. hehe**_

_**Disclaimer (yeah.. I didn't place it but better late than never): NOT. MINE. well.. most of the characters ;)**_

* * *

**Chapter 4: The Warnings**

* * *

Waas Forest

When Natsu was a little kid and lived with Igneel, he learned to hunt. The Fire Dragon King insisted upon it because he told Natsu that it concerned the "basics of survival". Before, Natsu thought that his father decided to teach him this in order to prove his strength, but Igneel insisted that it was so he could learn to live on his own. (Natsu more than often laughed at the irony of these words.)

So, one day, as part of his training, Igneel ordered him to bring back food, any type of it.

The first few times he returned was with berries and fruits (which 3 out of 5 times Igneel discarded them because they were deathly and made Natsu inflate like a balloon). After that, Igneel ordered him to bring meat. Natsu wasn't that squeamish like other kids his age. He had seen the dragon hunt and break its victims' necks or stab them with his claws, so he had a general idea on how to kill an animal. Plus, he liked fire-roasted meat since he could eat that _and_ the fire.

As he searched for any type of animal (he decided a rabbit was probably his best choice though Natsu secretly coveted bringing back a bear's body to show off his Dragon Slayer skills), he came across a rather peculiar smell. It was musky and rotten and gave him chills for no good reason since he was sure that dragon poop smelled much worse.

Then, he saw why.

An animal carcass had been left behind a tree, almost as if the predator who hunted it left its dinner for later. The body's stomach was still open, his innards spilling out into the grass, his eyes glassy and looking up at Natsu as if pleading for help. Since Natsu was still a child, it took Igneel some convincing before he could go hunting alone again.

Now, as he looked at the clearing where the village was supposed to be, he finally remembered the stench he had smelled before. It was similar to that animal, although at a much larger scale.

He wrinkled his nose in distaste. He was not a child now, so he would not run from it like before. However, he was concerned about what exactly caused all this.

Well, he turned to look at the Exceed and the blonde beside him; he was more likely worried for them. Whatever caused this was no simple monster. He shook his head silently, they could solve this, and they were from Fairy Tail after all.

Lucy didn't notice when exactly her mouth had gaped open; she only knew that she couldn't tear her eyes from the whole scene.

Suddenly, she felt something probing at her hand. She flinched at first, but then noticed that it was actually Natsu's hand, which made her calm down.

She turned her eyes towards his and was able to look at his determined gaze. She felt Happy perching on her shoulder, and she knew that he was looking at Natsu as well. She knew _this_ look and she knew what Natsu wanted them to do as well. With that, her face also morphed into a determined one, although she still squeezed his hand for reassurance.

Natsu nodded towards Happy and squeezed her hand back.

"Let's go," he said.

"Aye!"

The three of them started walking down towards the clearing.

* * *

National Council, Fiore Branch

"As I have mentioned before, my name is Erza Scarlet and I'm here to see Doranbolt for an urgent matter that he has with Fairy Tail," Erza said in an annoyed tone.

She had an itching to throw a punch or a sword at the smug looking guard for delaying them, but she knew it wasn't reasonable to get thrown into jail for murder. (Although, she noticed that Wendy kept a firm grip on her arm just as a precaution.)

"And as _I_ have mentioned before, you need an appointment before entering this building," he smiled at her, "Although, if you manage to convince me…"

His leer was enough to make her snap. Surely she could plead not guilty when she revealed that she did this in pervert-self-defense, so she started summoning a sword in order to stab the guard. Maybe that way she would be able to pass.

"Erza-san!" Wendy warned.

Erza looked down at the Dragon Slayer once more and met with her pleading eyes. Charle, who was beside her, also looked annoyed with the guard since she made a disgusted face at him.

"Wendy, he doesn't deserve your kindness."

Wendy sighed and took a step forward towards the guard, whose eyes snapped down to look at her, which made Erza consider stabbing him with a spear instead of a sword in order to avoid slashing Wendy.

"Please, sir. It is important that we meet with Doranbolt-san," she said.

"Don't make me repeat myself. I said-"

"What's going on here?"

All of them turned to look at the familiar face coming down the hall. The guard immediately fixed his position.

"Commander Lahar! Just dealing with intru-"

"Lahar, we're here to see Doranbolt." Erza wasted no time to seize the opportunity.

"You!" The guard turned to look at her, "That's the Head of the 4th Custody-"

"Ah… Titania. That's right. He did ask for you."

To say that the guard looked shocked was an understatement. He finally let the three of them go inside, not before Erza kicked his kneecap hard enough for him to fall down.

Erza smiled before following Lahar. Maybe she would finally get clues to what Doranbolt needed them to get from Cobra.

* * *

Doranbolt's Office, Inside the Council

"I'm glad you made it safely," Doranbolt greeted them as they said their goodbyes to Lahar.

"Thank you. I trust you've been well?" Erza replied, turning her gaze towards the teleporter.

Doranbolt nodded, his serious scowl never leaving his face until he managed a small smile when his gaze locked onto Wendy's. Wendy smiled back. Her Exceed seemed annoyed by the whole exchange. Charle never did forget what happened at Tenrou Island.

"So, can you explain what we will be doing?" Charle pressed.

Wendy smiled apologetically because of her tone. She was no stranger to the harshness that Charle seemed to convey on matters in which she was involved.

"Alright… Ahem…"He began, "I'm sure you're all aware of Cobra's involvement during the… incident at the Grand Magic Games."

"Yes," Erza had already been warned by Mavis that they couldn't address the war between the humans and dragons lightly behind these walls. It must be kept a secret.

"Fine," he continued, "Aside from the fact that he has shown a desire to reunite the rest of the Oracion Seis… What was curious was something he mentioned afterwards."

"What was it about?" asked Wendy.

"Well…I'm sure you're aware of his special _ability_."

Erza nodded, having already gotten well acquainted with his mind reading.

"He mentioned something about the gates of the Netherworld opening."

Erza's eyes snapped open. She had heard something like that before. But it can't be… After all this time…

"Gates of the Netherworld?" asked Charle, mirroring Wendy's confused expression.

Doranbolt sighed when he looked at Erza's face, "It seems that you already have knowledge of this, Titania."

Wendy and Charle turned to look at her as she nodded.

"Once," she began to explain, "I was in a mission investigating dark guilds. It was simply to map their alliances but it was actually my first S-Class mission. My team and I discovered that one of these dark guilds was meddling with black magic, magic that actually related with those very gates. After a bit more researching, we found out that those gates are connected with the summoning of demons, similar to what Zeref used in his time."

She gave a hard stare at Doranbolt. "However, due to the fact that it was meddling with heavy black magic, it is said that the guild made a mistake, which made the magic rebound and left it weak for a while, which was the reason why it was so lightly involved in recent incidents."

Doranbolt nodded, "It seems… we were wrong."

"Excuse me but, what guild is it?" asked Wendy.

Erza turned her hard gaze at her.

"Tartaros."

* * *

Waas Forest

Lucy could probably count on one hand the times she had seen a town destroyed to this degree. True, half the time the damage was done by Fairy Tail, but they never left this feeling of emptiness behind.

It wasn't the blood that made her skin crawl (she had seen enough of that during the war and missions), but the sheer image of it all. She lightly wondered why they haven't seen any _bodies_ yet, and chose not to answer that particular question.

She looked around for signs of life, her eyes landing on a form in the ground. It was probably a doll before, she guessed as she took in the toy's severed arm and half its head. She kneeled down to pick it up.

"How could a class B monster do something like this?" she whispered.

She felt a hand on her upper arm and she let herself be lifted up by the Dragon Slayer behind her. She was still holding the doll.

"I really don't think it was a monster… The smell here is similar to the one when we found Lullaby." He grabbed her shoulder and turned her around.

Lullaby seemed so long ago…

"A demon?" she asked. Her head was already whirling of the implications of that situation. They were lucky that Lullaby had been rusty. This one? Not so rusty at all.

"Don't worry," she felt a hand on her chin guiding her face up to meet his eyes. She looked at his reassuring smile, "This time we're here and this time we will stop it."

He grinned at her and released her chin to grasp her other shoulder. Lucy felt a tingling in the places where his hands had been and a little pink dusted her cheeks. She knew Natsu was doing this to get rid of her nervousness. So, she smiled at him.

"You're right. We just need to gather information from the other villages nearby to know what we are dealing with."

"Exactly. There's no use to linger here and this time we will protect everyone." He turned to look at the town, "This time _I_ will protect _everyone_."

His eyes were darkening quickly, glancing at a memory that Lucy could not seem to grasp. She felt his fingers tighten on her shoulders.

"Natsu?" She asked confusedly.

"Guys!" They both stepped away from each other as they looked at Happy flying quickly towards them. Just for the fact that he didn't tease about their closeness made Lucy alert.

"You have to come!" Lucy couldn't remember the last time he looked so pale, "You have to see the town's center!"

All of them wasted no time running towards there. However this time when they managed to catch a glimpse at what was at the center, both of them couldn't keep inside their shocked gasps.

They were a bit farther away but they could see it almost perfectly.

In the center of the town lay the "tower" they had seen from the hilltop before. Now, they could actually distinguish that it was not a building. In front of them rose a pile of corpses, most likely from the village. Arms and feet stuck out from all directions. Their eyes were lifeless staring at them. Adults, teenagers, kids, ba-

Lucy had the sudden urge to throw up. She felt Happy grabbing the edge of her boots and she opened her arms to welcome him inside them. The Exceed was trembling.

"How horrible…"

She heard a cracking noise beside her and turned to see a building coming down, or at least what was left of it. She then saw Natsu making an enraged face.

"What… The fuck… is _this?_"

Right now, Lucy thought that the culprit should probably start saying his prayers since now he will have an enraged Dragon Slayer behind his trail.

"Lucy," she flinched a bit at his hard tone, but she met his eyes, "Let's head to the nearest town already to find the son of a bitch who did this."

Lucy nodded, she didn't' like this whole situation either and wanted to end it quickly.

"But first," he came to stand next to her, his anger was still making his body heat up and he shook a fist covered in fire. Both Lucy and Happy could tell that Natsu was trying to control his impulses to trash the place, "Let's give these guys a proper burial. It's giving me a bad taste in my mouth to leave them like that."

Both Lucy and Happy agreed to it and the three started walking towards the pile.

"Stop!"

They still hadn't made it even halfway through when they looked, startled, around them, searching for the voice. An attack?

However, a small figure ran from the nearby ruins to get between them and the corpses.

"Don't touch them!"

"A kid?!"

* * *

Crocus, Capital of Fiore

"… And I heard he's got the _greatest_ collection of novels. Although I think I've already read most of them, not that I wouldn't mind re-reading them, of course, but a new novel might be good once in a while! Oh! And then what I heard about the History books, maybe they dive deeper into the past and…"

Gajeel had a headache. He swore he did.

It wasn't that he minded that Levy was being a non-stop blab train about books to both him and Lily, who couldn't escape her grasp from her arms, whether it was because he was comfortable or because Levy didn't let go, he didn't say. Gajeel just hoped that the whole situation would stop soon now that they had arrived since he couldn't understand half the things she was saying.

And no, it wasn't also because he liked seeing that sparkly look in her eyes or the fact that her smile would just fucking glow every time she turned to look at him and saw that he was paying attention (it wasn't _that_ dammit!).

He was always amazed of the way such a small body could withhold a whole world of information.

Normally, he would've zoned out by now, but he couldn't escape her expectant look and, yes now he saw that Lily was by no means trying to escape. The black Exceed was giving him a sly look as if he knew everything that was going through Gajeel's mind, which, quite honestly, was highly probable. Damn cat.

So, he grumbled all the way through their walk towards the center of the palace. The damn place was _huge_. Yet, despite his humor, the Bookworm seemed happy to have both of their attention and Gajeel ignored the fact that he was probably grumbling responses because of that. No fucking way. It was all for the sake of not having Levy hit him with one of those heavy books, he was sure of that.

Suddenly, his nose caught on something, something that had not been in the palace when they had visited it before…

"Gajeel… Gajeel!"

Levy needed to pat his arm to get his attention.

"Didn't you listen to me?" she pouted a bit, Gajeel denied the fact that it distracted him enough to ignore the smell, "We're already here."

Sure enough, they had made it to the Grand Staircase where they were supposed to wait for the King. They were still carrying their luggage since some guards at the train station insisted on them to immediately go to the palace.

Gajeel quickly shared a look with Lily, which was why the cat changed his disapproving stare (_why?_) to a curious one, before frowning. Seemed that he got Gajeel's message. He then turned to Levy and grinned, no use worrying her _now_.

"Sorry Shorite, gi hee," he patted her head and Levy thought that he didn't look the least bit apologetic, "You kind of lost me after I couldn't see you behind all the pillars around the staircase."

She turned a slight red and pouted before turning away. Gajeel could feel the teasing smile in his face widening at her reaction. He definitely enjoyed teasing her at least.

She was about to retort (because NO WAY she will continue letting him make fun of her size) when the guards interrupted her.

"Ladies and gentlemen (Gajeel scoffed at this), the King of Fiore."

The group of mages turned to look at King Toma coming down towards them. Gajeel thought that he was fairly small for a person who wielded so much power.

"Now really," Toma chastised the guard, "was that necessary?"

"Arcadios-sama asked us to-"

"Yes, yes I figured as much." He sighed before opening his arms in greeting and smiling at them. "Welcome! I trust your voyage went well?"

Levy, who asked Lucy for certain etiquette advice before coming here, dropped into a curtsy. She wanted to give a good impression at least. "Yes, your majesty. Thank you for your concern. We come here in the name of Fairy Tail. I'm Levy McGarden and these are my companions: Pantherlily and Gajeel Redfox."

From the corner of her eye, she saw that Lily bowed, probably already used to addressing royals since his days in Edolas. Gajeel, however, did nothing. She fixed a glare onto him until he seemed to flinch and bow slightly. He never liked it when she got mad at him. He supposed that it was the same feeling Salamander got from Bunny Girl when he did something stupid, which happened often.

Toma didn't seem to mind, though, because he continued smiling at both of them.

"Good, good. Now, I suppose you already know your purpose here, yes?"

Levy nodded enthusiastically, already feeling books beneath her fingertips. Lily nodded and Gajeel grumbled a yes (he tried to ignore the shiver he got from Levy's glare by doing so).

"Very well then," the king seemed pleased, "Miss… McGarden, was it?" Levy nodded, "I trust you would like to begin today?"

"Yes, right away, your majesty!" She tried to tone her excitement down, really she did. The king chuckled at her response.

"Your enthusiasm is contagious," Levy turned pink at his comment, "The guards will escort your belongings to your rooms in the guest house. You are able to go to the Library which is in the West Wing."

Levy was already "ohh" ing at the fact that they were going to sleep in the palace. The king _did_ love magic. She was more excited by the fact that the library was going to be even nearer…

Gajeel nudged Lily, whom glared at him and grumbled before speaking.

"Your Majesty, we heard that you recently caught an intruder from the Grand Magic Games… One who was linked with Zeref."

Levy's attention snapped towards that comment. She noticed how Gajeel seemed much more interested in this answer than any of the ones before.

"Ah… yes. I believe we were told his name was Obra from Raven Tail."

Gajeel tried to mask his surprise, but his body did tense. That son of a bitch was a nasty piece of work. Whoever had caught him would have to be a strong mage. He grinned a little at that. _Now_ things were looking interesting.

"There weren't any others?" asked Levy.

"None of the others came close to his involvement according to our investigation… But I can ask Arcadios to send you the information regarding the case," he smiled at the both of them.

Lily bowed his head in gratitude, "Thank you, your majesty."

"I'll be off. Thank you for coming to investigate. Mages are always welcome within these walls. Enjoy your stay." And with that, he walked right back up the stairs. Levy tried _not_ to think that there was a light teasing tone beneath those words.

"Anyway," she turned to her companions, "I'll be going to the library to get started. What will you do?"

"We'll just… need to check something out," Gajeel answered gruffly. Levy could tell he was taking the information in.

"I see…" She paused and frowned at him, "You better not be slouching off just because you don't like this particular mission!"

Gajeel looked indignant for a moment and was about to retort when he saw her slightly pink cheeks. So she _did_ notice that something was off…

"Gi hee. Miss me already, Shrimp?"

Levy's cheeks turned an even brighter shade of red as she crossed her arms. "Now see here I-"

He placed a hand over her head as he walked towards the exit.

"We'll be back soon, you can count on it." He said seriously.

She glanced up, surprised at his change in tone. "… Fine."

He smiled a little at that and didn't look back as he exited.

"You better not have some bookshelves fall on you! It's gonna be difficult to find you in all that because of your size."

"GAJEEL!"

After chuckling at her indignant yelp, he turned to look at Lily, who smiled a little at the interaction, but opted to say nothing. This time.

"Then, what are we looking for?"

Gajeel looked at him, "I'll be searching whatever is causing this smell. The King may not notice it… But there's another person here reeking of dark magic. And it is not one from Raven Tail."

Both the cat and the Dragon Slayer nodded in agreement before parting ways in search of the second intruder.

* * *

Waas Forest

"Who the hell are _you_?"

Natsu looked at the kid (a boy, he thought) up and down. Despite the fact that he reeked of fear (his skinny knees were shaking), he decided he liked the fact that his green eyes looked at his own with determination. Although, they lowered slightly when they heard his tone. Damn. He was still mad about the bodies.

He felt Lucy lay a hand gingerly on his arm. She sent him a look, and with that he let her take the lead while he took a place beside Happy. Regularly, he wouldn't have minded talking to the boy. The whole situation just pissed him off.

Lucy could tell that Natsu was trying to calm his anger so he could begin searching for answers. She looked at the boy in front of them and knelt so that she could meet his gaze with a smile. She was going to extend a hand, but she saw his eyes locking with the movement nervously.

"Hello," she said gently, "My name is Lucy. We are mages from Fairy Tail that were hired to investigate these attacks."

She showed him her guild mark and the boy stared at it in wonder.

"You're from Fairy Tail? …Seriously? THE Fairy Tail?"

She wasn't surprised the guild got famous after the Grand Magic Games, but his tone still made her laugh, "That's right."

She whooped insider her mind. Maybe she could get some answers by herself after all. She could smile at him to reassure his safety and then he'll probably recognize her from all the fights at the Games and-

"I don't believe you. _He_ looks strong," he pointed at Natsu, "But you… You look _weak_. Fairy Tail is supposed to be full of strong mages. You just look soft and squishy and your boobs are too big."

"WHAT?"

She must've made a face because the boy was quickly stepping backwards towards the bodies as if he preferred them instead of her wrath.

"HEY!" Since when did Natsu get beside her? "It's not her fault they're _big_. They help her cushion her fall every time she falls, which happens often. So it's for safety. AND she can suffocate people with them! It's the way she attacks!"

"NATSU! You do realize I ACTUALLY am a mage, you idiot!"

Natsu decided it was time to get away from Lucy since she was making that glare that she made before throwing him out of bed every morning.

"Don't mind them," the boy turned to look at the cat, which had also walked to be near him, "They are always this immature. I really need to take care of them," Happy sighed.

The boy stared at Happy.

"A TALKING CAT? What the hell are you!?"

"Hey!" Happy yelped indignantly, "I'm not scary like Lucy's boobs!"

"CAT, YOU'RE NEXT!"

Happy gulped, but before he started running for his life, the kid interrupted him.

"Shut up! All of you!" His eyes suddenly looked angry. "Are you kidding me?! Why would we need useless mages like yourselves? Can't you actually see around you? Just leave!"

Lucy stopped trying to choke Natsu with his scarf to gaze at the boy's angry eyes. Natsu stopped struggling and stared back just as silently.

"… Why should we? Your village _did_ send us a request. And it looks like you did a _fine_ job by yourselves." Natsu replied.

"Natsu!" Lucy nudged him in protest.

The boy turned his angry gaze over to him. "We don't _need_ magic. You see what it did! It'll just ruin everything…"

"How-" Lucy began, but she was interrupted by another cry.

"Fayol!"

A smaller girl, with identical green eyes and black hair as the boy, ran to hug him.

"Maria!" He said in alarm, "I _told_ you to stay hidden!"

"Sorry, she got away!" Another boy coming from the ruins nearby ran up to him as well. This one was a chubby blonde.

"Sig, you idiot! I told you not to let her go!"

"Fayol… Who are they?" The little girl was probably referring to all of the mages, but her eyes locked with Happy and stayed there.

Fayol (apparently the boy's name) glared at them, "No one. They're stupid mages coming to ruin the village's hard work."

"Hey!" Natsu began to protest, but was stopped by another voice.

"Kids!" It belonged to a male, one who sounded way older than the children, "Where are you?"

A man emerged from the ruins; he looked to be around fifty. His hair was blonde but it looked to be graying. Natsu thought that he must be a doctor of some kind since he stank of medicine.

He looked tired. "I told you not to come near here! Vrein-sama has ordered us not to step foot in this place!"

He flinched when he set his eyes on the bodies.

"We're sorry, sensei," Sig and Maria chorused. Fayol just looked grumpily at the side.

Sig and Maria ran up to the elder man, who patted their heads. Fayol, however, didn't move.

"Fayol," he chided, "You should come back. Your mother has-"

"She's NOT my mother," he snapped and proceeded to walk in the direction from which the man came from without looking back.

"Fayol!" Maria quickly ran to catch up with him, grabbing his hand. She looked back at Happy in curiosity.

"Sensei, we'll see you back home," Sig told him and ran to catch up with the other two.

The man sighed and finally turned to look at Natsu and Lucy.

"Sorry about that… Fayol doesn't have a good image of magic ever since… " He gestured around them with a grimace.

"What happened here?" Lucy asked.

"A monster attack, a demon, black magic. Who knows? We just know that some kind of creature attacked us in the middle of the night and left us like this." He looked sad.

"Why did you leave bodies here? Aren't they your family?" Natsu looked at him with a hard gaze.

The man smiled feebly. "They _are_… But, every seven days… The creature comes back and takes a body from the pile… We don't know why… Maybe food or whatever. He looks for some treasure or money as well… And then he disappears. We thought that maybe if we kept doing that, the survivors might not suffer a second attack."

The man looked at them. "However, our treasure is going to run out soon. That's why we decided to hire mages. Our village… Our village needs someone with more experience to solve this, not farmers or family members or children. We need _your _help!"

Natsu stepped up towards him and nodded.

"That's what we're here for. Fairy Tail _will_ help you."

The man looked slightly relieved. "_Thank you._"

Natsu grinned, "Not yet, wait up until we kick the demon's ass!"

The man smiled a little, "My name is Locht. I'm the village doctor. Come. I'll show you where we are residing so you can talk to our leader, Vrein-sama."

* * *

**_And that's it. hehe :D I hoped you liked this chapter.. It took me a long time to get it right.. _**

_**Mostly, I worry about conveying the correct relationship between team members. I don't want their relationship to be too forced... But I also want to show how they are really just.. nakama. I mean, they understand each other and can get what the other is thinking just by looking at them.**_

_**The reason why I decided to name this chapter "The Warnings" is because... Well... The things that they find out in this chapter hold a bit of foreshadowing to what will happen next. hehhehehe :D But they ARE still little things.. So that's the reason for the name :)**_

_**The original character's names are a bit funny... Probably my fault. A bit. hehe I hope to get to fully disclose Fayol's situation. He will play an important part in the future ;) **_

_**As for what happened to Gray and Juvia, well, there's next chapter to look forward to :D**_

_**Anyway, read, review, favorite, follow, whatever moves your boat :) Everything is appreciated. Until next time!**_

_Next chapter_

The First Meeting


	5. The First Meeting

_**BAM! Finally updating! Yes, I have been gone for a while... But preparing for college does that to you. This is probably the longest chapter i have ever written... so, I hope you enjoy it :)**_

_**On a note, I probably will be updating less frequently, moving in to college and stuff like that are happening... Though I will continue the story! I already have an idea what the next 15 chapters will look like ;)**_

_**Thank you all for your support! I really love it when I get the notice of a Favorite or a Follow, and yes that does include the ones from my one-shots as well. THANK YOU!**_

_**Warnings: Probably a bit of language.. although I can't say i haven't warned you...**_

_**And now, on with the chapter! There's quite a bit of Gruvia on this one... And little snippets of my favorite pairings. ;) And now your feature presentation:**_

* * *

**Chapter 5: The First Meeting**

* * *

Path to Moonshine Resort, Akane Beach

One of the things that Juvia loves to watch is the sunset. It was just so colorful and pretty. So… not gloomy. During the years of her childhood, she never once saw it. She never once experienced what it was like to see the sunlight change into a myriad of colors before turning dark. Not once.

Until she met Gray-sama.

She probably will never know (she never really did question it) just how he managed to make the sunlight come through the rain clouds after their battle. All she knew was that, because of him, she could see sunsets and that, because of him, the skies around her weren't gloomy as before.

Sure, she always thought that Gray-sama was, well, hot (swoon), but she will always be eternally grateful for what he did that day.

Now, after the carriage ride and walk, she finally managed to notice something. It wasn't in the literal sense like it had happened with her but, as they walked and made polite conversation, Juvia thought there was a certain cloud that seemed to follow Gray-sama. The more she thought about it, the more she noticed that his behavior was similar at the end of the Grand Magic Games. And the more she noticed this, the more she worried.

So, she decided that, this time, _she_ will be the one to bring the sunlight back to Gray-sama. Then, he'll carry her towards it and there, just when the prettiest colors are showing, he'll kneel down and-

"Juvia!"

Juvia snapped out of her daydream, annoyed with the interruption, but as soon as she saw whom it was a smile bloomed on her face.

"Meredy!" She waved towards her.

The pink-haired girl (well, now she might be a bit older than Juvia because of the seven year time skip) jumped and hugged her tightly. Juvia returned the hug laughing.

Meredy let go of Juvia and greeted Gray who raised a hand in greeting.

"How are you?" she asked them.

"Juvia is fine," Juvia smiled at her, "The trip was just a bit tiring."

"No need to worry," Meredy continued, "Jellal is just up ahead and the resort where we will be staying is not that far."

"Juvia is pleased. Juvia is glad to see that you're doing well, Meredy."

It was only for a second, but Meredy's smile faltered before grabbing both of their hands and started guiding them towards Jellal.

"Yes… Jellal! They've just arrived!"

The blue-haired man had his hood on, probably to disguise the tattoo on his face. Juvia managed to feel Gray-sama stiffening before forcibly trying to relax his body when he spotted Jellal. It had happened quite some time ago (especially if you consider it from Jellal's perspective) but both he and Natsu experienced some reaction because of the incident in the Tower of Heaven. Although, unlike that time, Jellal smiled and nodded in greeting, causing Gray to finally relax.

"Gray and Juvia, nice to see that you arrived well."

His demeanor quickly changed and he got straight to the point. Juvia chuckled inwardly while she thought that his direct tone was probably one of the reasons why Erza liked him so much.

"This is the resort that we'll be staying. They call it the Moonshine Resort since it is said that it could get the best sights of the ocean on a full moon. An _official_ request for this whole issue hasn't been made… But we have noticed that they have experienced trouble with their water systems for a few weeks now, which was around the time we began to sense some strange magic in the area."

"What kind of water problems?" asked Gray.

"Mostly that it takes a long time for even one drop to come out of the faucet. The resort has had some problems with complaints because it can't seem to find what's wrong with the pipes. Regularly, it's just a misplaced pipeline, but this time," he frowned, "we believe that it might have something to do with what we sensed around the village."

"We heard from Mavis about her objective to find a teacher for the Dragon Slayers in your guild and that you are looking for that person," Meredy began, "So, we decided to invite you two since you are so acquainted with water. Besides, who knows? Maybe the culprits actually know a thing or two about whom you are searching for."

Juvia smiled and Gray gave a little grin.

"Leave it to us."

They made their way towards the resort (Jellal managed to change his hair color and hide his tattoo with some spells). The men were walking a little ahead of Juvia and Meredy talking about details of the mission. Juvia didn't mind lagging back with Meredy, although she kept a watchful eye on Gray-sama as always. Something told her that he was tense, and it wasn't because of Jellal this time.

Suddenly, she stopped mid-conversation and looked around.

"Juvia?" Meredy sounded worried.

A slow feeling of dread took over Juvia and she spoke quietly so that Gray-sama wouldn't hear.

"Meredy… Please tell me that Crime Sorciere still has three main members."

Meredy's face and eyes fell so quickly that Juvia hugged her apologetically. Now she understood a bit better why Gray-sama had been acting so weird.

"Didn't you hear?" Meredy whispered in her ear, "Ultear is dead."

* * *

Waas Forest

It wasn't long before they managed to catch up with the kids. Longer legs tended to do that. Fayol was still sending them glares every now and then, Lucy observed. She sighed inwardly; they were going to have a hard time talking to people if that kid loomed over all of them.

Dr. Locht seemed nice, and he talked endlessly about what happened to the village and how _thankful_ he was for two mages of Fairy Tail (_the_ Fairy Tail? Lucy swore he almost fainted at the mention of the guild.). Natsu decided to step away from him because "he smelled weird", Lucy glared at him since he was letting her take the short end of the stick. It wasn't that she hated talking to people, she loved it in fact, just that this doctor was getting a bit annoying, and the high praises he gave them made her slightly uncomfortable.

"Hey, is that kid staring at me?" Natsu whispered in her ear, and she shivered involuntarily. She _hated_ when Natsu did that, it made goose bumps appear on her skin.

She followed his line of sight instead of telling him to back down, and managed to see Maria yelp and turn her head around quickly. She was a bit red in the face and Lucy thought it was kind of adorable the way she tried to seem nonchalant that she was trying to sneak a peek at them.

Lucy smiled evilly.

"Seems like someone's got a _little_ crush," she whispered back in a sing-songy voice.

"What the hell are you talking about, weirdo?"

She ignored the question to see the thought being processed in his face.

"Oh, _hell no_. I don't want to deal with any kiddy drama!" He threw his hands up making Happy fall down from his head at the motion, where he had been dozing off.

"Fiiiish…" Happy shook his head to wake himself up as he started walking beside Natsu.

"So, Natsu's got an admirer?" Happy grinned mischievously as well.

"Weren't you supposed to be asleep?" Natsu remarked.

Happy shrugged, "I'm full of secret talents."

Lucy rolled her eyes and looked back at the girl once more, although this time she noticed that her gaze hadn't been on Natsu after all.

"Happy… I think she's staring at _you_."

Natsu looked at her confusedly, "What are you saying, Lucy?"

Lucy was about to explain it to him but was interrupted by Happy, "Oh, curse my good looks!"

"I think it was more your _fluffiness_, cat." Lucy remarked.

"Wait, hold on. I don't get it." Natsu complained.

Lucy and Happy looked at each other, both seeming to get the same idea about what to do, and chuckled.

"Why the hell are you guys laughing?!"

"Because… well…"Lucy tried to tell him while laughing, "She's Happy's admirer. Not yours!"

Natsu pondered this for a while until he suddenly seemed to reach a conclusion.

"You mean… I lost to a _cat_?"

This caused the other two to start laughing rather loudly. At least loud enough for Dr. Locht to send a concerned glance to them.

"Wow, Natsu, I knew that you haven't had a girlfriend before, but I didn't think that it was because Happy stole your thunder!" Lucy teased.

The Dragon Slayer turned slightly pink and glared at her.

"Hey! I've had my share of admirers! There was that time… no wait… Then… wait, that wasn't either…" He let out an exasperated sigh.

Lucy giggled, but she ignored the pang of relief when he didn't mention anyone in particular. Either way, she was sure that he _did_ have some; just that he was probably too dense to notice them.

Happy flew up to put a paw on his shoulder.

"You have much to learn, little one."

"Don't you start."

"We're here!" Dr. Locht announced, stopping their conversation.

All three of them turned to look at the entrance to the village. It looked small and inside there were barely as many people as the past village was supposed to hold.

"Wait here. I'll get Vrein-sama for you," the doctor told them.

He seemed like he wanted to bring the children along with him, but Fayol glared at the doctor until he seemed to change his mind and went searching for the village leader.

A small silence fell over the group and Lucy didn't know what to do to break it, until she saw Maria peeking at Happy once again from Fayol's side.

She smiled and knelt down, pushing Happy towards her.

"He's curious, isn't he? He's actually not a cat, but an Exceed. Either way, he's _exceedingly_ fluffy and cute." She winked at her.

"Hey! I'm also tough, you know, "Happy puffed his chest out trying to seem manly, but he gave a small step towards the girl.

At first, she jolted in surprise, before she started extending her hand, slowly…

Another hand grabbed hers before she made contact.

"Don't you dare, Maria," Fayol warned, glaring at the mages, "You might get infected by more magic."

Maria looked a bit dejected as she hid her hand back insider her coat. Only then did Lucy notice that her arms were actually covered in bandages.

"Oi," she turned to see Natsu glaring back at the boy, "Just because we use magic doesn't mean that we are dangerous to her."

"Oh yeah? What do you think made the burns on Maria's arms? What destroyed this village?" Fayol gritted his teeth and turned his head away, "You're just like him. You're just like that doctor."

Lucy's eyes widened a bit, "What do you-"

"Fayol! Sid! Maria!"

All looked up to see a young woman, about in her late twenties, running towards them. She had her dark hair neatly tucked in a bun and she stumbled a bit because of running in her long dress.

Maria snatched her hand away from her brother's and ran up to meet the woman.

"Mommy!" The woman leaned down to receive her hug. Sid wasted no time to get nearby the woman as well, and she reached over to pat his head affectionately.

"Oh… How many times have I told you _not_ to play in the ruins? It could be dangerous," her tone was firm, but Lucy's eyes softened as she say the sight.

_Mother…_

Sid managed to turn slightly pink before speaking, "It wasn't our fault… _Really_. We just thought that we heard strange noises coming from there, when we saw these three mages."

"Mages?" She looked up in wonder to the three. "So, that's what gotten Vrein-sama so unsettled…"

She shook her head and smiled at them. "Pleased to meet you! Thank you for bringing the kids back."

Natsu and Happy smiled at her as Lucy stood up.

"No problem!"

"Actually, it was more Dr. Locht's work than our own," Lucy added.

"Doesn't matter," the woman smiled kindly, "My name is Anna and I take care of these three."

Lucy suddenly noticed something and observed the three children. While Fayol and Maria did have similar characteristics, Sid did not.

"Are you their mother?" Natsu asked bluntly, however Anna didn't seem to mind.

"Actually-"

"No, she's not."

All of them turned to look at Fayol who grumpily interrupted Anna.

"Fayol, don't be such a meanie!" Maria cried from Anna's arms.

"It's not mean when it's the truth!"

"Meanie!"

"How many times do I have to tell you that she is not _our_ mother?! Mom is-" He gritted his teeth, "Whatever. I'm going home."

He started running towards the town as Maria placed her head in the crook of Anna's neck.

Ana sighed and looked at Sid, "Sid, could you-"

"Go get him? Sure, I'll bring him home." He smiled a little at her before running after Fayol.

Anna stood up to look at the mages, and she managed to pull off a weak smile. "As you can see, it's a bit complicated."

"What happened?" asked Lucy.

They started walking towards the village and Happy flew towards the little girl, who finally got the opportunity to pet him. Only after the both of them started playing and walking a little ahead did Anna finally answer Lucy's question.

She explained to them how the demon appeared to come out of nowhere after a huge light had shone in the middle of the town. Lucy guessed that it was actually probably a summoning spell what made the demon appear. After that bright light, it was pure chaos. Anna told them that she was lucky to find Sid before he had walked into his falling house, loosing both of his parents. However, the other two siblings hadn't been so lucky.

The demon had somehow caused a fire (Anna didn't really know exactly how, or whether it was from a spell). She had found Fayol dragging his sister out of the house to put both her burnt arms in a nearby bucket of water. However, when he ran back to the house to get his parents, a giant explosion caused the house to crumble, killing them in the process.

"How horrible," Lucy commented, already recalling the sensation of parent loss. Natsu was silent during the story.

"After that," Anna continued, "I decided to take care of them. Maria, of course, had known me from before since I managed a day care, so she took to me immediately. She eventually started calling me mommy. Fayol still hasn't accepted it, though. But I worry that one night he will sneak out to get revenge on that demon…"

"Those burns," Natsu spoke up and both women turned to look at him, "I mean, they don't look like normal burns to me."

"Dr. Locht said they will probably scar for life, but he's doing the best he can to heal them. He's quite a capable doctor. Some even say he has a magical touch while performing surgeries."

Natsu nodded in agreement, but Lucy could see that he wasn't totally convinced with what he was doing to Maria's burns.

Sensing Lucy's look he explained himself, "I just don't like how he smells."

"His… smell?" Anna asked confusedly.

Lucy chuckled, "Natsu is a Dragon Slayer, so his senses are a bit sharper than others."

"Oh! Well it's not surprising, actually. Even to me he _does_ smell a bit too much of medicine. But he has treated a lot of the people that survived, or has tried his best."

"Mommy, we're here!"

The three of them looked up to see a small house down the edge of the village road. It wasn't very big, but it looked comfortable enough for a medium-size family. Outside, Dr. Locht was waiting with an elderly woman by his side. She had long white hair in a loose bun. She was short and hunched, but Lucy was stricken at her cold gray eyes. Something about them was… off.

Probably because this is the stare of a leader who managed to build the village after the chaos, she mused.

"Dr. Locht! Vrein-sama! I wasn't expecting you! I should've made tea..."

"Nonsense!" The elderly woman spoke in a soft voice, "I'm just here to greet the three mages."

"Oh… Well then, Maria! It's time for your medicine!" Maria returned with Happy in her harms. She looked dejected from having to stop playing with the cat but she obeyed.

However, Lucy noted that she didn't go with Dr. Locht directly, but she looked at him between Anne's legs. The woman sighed.

"Fine, I'll come. Lucy, Natsu," This time she directed her stare to the mages, "Be sure to stop by my house! I'm pretty sure I have a spare room for you two."

Lucy looked at the house and then started counting the members that reside in it before asking, "Are you sure you have two beds to spare?" She watched how Dr. Locht disappeared into the house.

"_Two_ beds?" Anne asked confused, "I'm sorry to insinuate anything but, don't you need just one?"

"What?!" Lucy's outburst caused the woman to flinch, and then Lucy tried to calm herself down, but she could already feel her face turning tomato red, "No, I'm sorry. I mean- no! We're close… but I-"

"They _wish_." Happy sighed as tired of scolding a small child.

"CAT! Don't you start!"

"I don't get it, Lucy. Why would we need another bed? We've slept just fine in your own." Natsu said bluntly, a confused look upon his face. Lucy could feel how her mouth turned into an O.

Happy sniggered as Anne gave a sly look at her, even the elderly woman looked expectant at her answer.

"I-I-," Lucy sputtered before her hand made a fist, "Natsu, YOU IDIOT! We are _so_ gonna need two beds!"

"EEP!"

Both women and cat winced at the kick Lucy launched at the Dragon Slayer. Anna seemed to be a bit surprised at her strength.

"Thank you, Anna-san," Lucy turned to look at her, ignoring Happy's cries over Natsu's fallen figure. Anna for her part looked scared of Lucy now. "But we don't wish to impose on you that much. We will probably reside in the nearby Inn."

Anne nodded, "Fine, but stop by for tea once to hear more about your… Sleeping accommodations." She winked at Lucy who thought she couldn't get any more embarrassed until she remembered the village leader chuckling nearby.

Anna walked into her house before Lucy started apologizing, "I'm _so_ sorry!" She bowed down, but the woman waved it off.

"No need. I've always known Fairy Tail mages are a bit more… exciting."

"You know of Fairy Tail, granny?" Natsu came to stand beside Lucy, Happy by his shoulder.

"It's _Vrein-sama_, you moron!" Lucy hit him at the back of his head, and Natsu made a puppy-dog face at her.

The woman chuckled, "Don't worry, it's fine. Most of the kids call me Granny as well."

Natsu smirked at Lucy, looking as if he won a battle. She rolled her eyes at him.

"You could say I am well…acquainted with mages." Vrein-sama continued.

Before any of them could ask what she meant her gaze turned serious, and it somehow was enough to shut them up.

"I suspect you already know what's going on here."

The three mages nodded, noting that the woman now meant business.

"Good. About this demon, you must know this. We have noticed that it appears every 7 nights, although I believe that the Doctor already told you about this. Well, I guess you could say you're one lucky bunch."

"What do you mean, Vrein-sama?" asked Lucy.

"I mean that I'm counting on you _tonight_. After all, today is the 7th night and the demon _will_ appear."

She looked at them in the eye, "I'm counting on you to get rid of it."

"Aye, aye, sir!" Happy chirped, while Lucy nodded.

A ferocious grin spread in Natsu's face.

"I'm getting fired up."

* * *

Moonshine Resort, Akane Beach

It didn't take them long to find the resort. They immediately ordered two rooms, one for the women and another for the men, but they also asked if it was possible for them to be connected. Turns out that there were two Japanese Style rooms that had a common room in the middle that connected one to the other room easily.

Juvia sighed dejectedly as she unpacked. Just when she thought that she would get to share a room with Gray-sama. She liked Meredy's company a lot, though.

"Juvia."

Juvia was surprised to see the pink-haired woman giving her a stern look.

"Now, I'm going to talk to Gray about… that. And well, I know how you get when women talk to Gray alone, but-"

"It's fine, Meredy. Gray-sama needs to know." She smiled at her which caused Meredy to relax.

Juvia didn't consider her a love rival in the least. Lucy on the other hand… Although, she mused, maybe she was finally surrendering her position because of a certain hot-headed mage.

"Juvia will take a bath! The trip _was_ a bit long." Meredy smiled at her in response.

"Alright, I'll be just outside."

Meanwhile, Gray started unpacking his stuff as he watched Jellal look around the room. He was probably checking for something fishy and Gray wondered how many years from running away from the Government will it take for him to be extra-careful. A knock to the door made them both turn.

"Is he already fussing all over the room? Honestly, Jellal, you are just so _picky_!" said Meredy.

Jellal sniffed, "It's called being _cautious_, Meredy. Something we must be highly acquainted with."

"Yes, yes," She dismissed the comment with an eye roll, causing Jellal to sigh ruefully and launch Gray a look of suffering that even caused him to chuckle.

"Actually, Gray… I've been meaning to talk to you…"

His attention snapped towards her. He studied her for a minute, while she held his gaze.

"About?" he asked slowly.

She spared a glance at Jellal and then signaled him to follow her. Gray turned to look at the other man, but seeing that he got back to work, he decided just to follow her.

"Now, what is this about?" Gray wanted to get rid of the sinking feeling that had begun forming in the pit of his stomach.

"I'm sure you know about Ultear," Meredy went straight to the point. Gray stiffened at the mention of her name.

"…So?" He did not mean to sound as harsh as he did.

Meredy seemed unfazed as she took out a sheet of paper from her pocket. It was folded, and Gray already had a pretty good idea what it was about.

"This is a letter Ultear sent to us before dying. As her brother, you have the right to read it as well."

Gray stared long and hard at that piece of paper. It wasn't that he didn't want to know about it… it's just…

"She wrote it for _you_, not for-"

"That's bullshit and you know it."

He looked up to meet her determined stare.

"_Please_." She insisted.

Gray's hand slowly took the paper and began to unfold it…

"Everyone!"

Suddenly, a robe-clad Juvia came running to the living room, her hair was ruffled, and she seemed to have put on the robe in a hurry. Gray was just about to protest about her state of undress until he saw her alarmed face.

"What happened?"

Gray whirled around to see Jellal poking his head from the door to their room. A serious look was glooming upon his face.

"Well, um… Juvia was surprised. Juvia was preparing for her bath when… Well, Juvia used her magic to bring out water since _none_ was coming out." She shook her head as if trying to make sense of what happened.

Jellal was quickly by her side.

"Show me."

Juvia sent a small glance at Gray, which somehow generated a sense of protectiveness over him.

"It's probably easier this way," he reassured her, although he too was already making his way towards her. Juvia nodded and motioned for them to follow her to the bathtub.

They went inside the bathroom and Juvia pointed out the faucet where something was sticking out.

"_That_ came out." She pointed at the item.

Meredy's eyes opened wide.

"No way… Is that-?"

"Yes, I believe it is." Jellal answered her.

Gray sighed exasperatedly. "What is it?"

Jellal turned to look at him.

"Lacrima."

* * *

Crocus, Capital of Fiore

"…And so, this age became known as the Dragon War. Looking to the next century, one could see the influence that-"

Levy sighed dejectedly as she lightly registered the sky getting dark in the library window. She decided that she loved the place, which was filled to the brim with every type of book that mankind has ever seen. And yet, there was so little information about the war…

"Levy-san, is everything alright?"

She turned up to look at the glass-rimmed eyes of Bran (or Bran the librarian as he was introduced by the guards). He was on the skinny side, but was still almost as tall as Gajeel. He had unkempt brown hair and eyes and, quite frankly, appeared to get nervous from every little noise she made in this place.

"I'm fine Bran, just a little tired. Thank you." She smiled at him reassuringly.

"Oh… well, should I get these books back to the shelf?"

Only then did Levy notice that he brought a whole new set of books for her to analyze.

"No, it's fine. You can leave them here."

Bran nodded, "I'll be on my desk, remember? If you need anything."

This was about the fifth time he had said that to her.

"Thank you, Bran." She did not mean to shut him up that quickly, but her mood was already bitter from not finding anything relevant.

He quickly scampered away from her sight and she made a mental note to be nice to him next time. Probably after she gets her sleep and coffee.

She cracked open a new book and looked at the index in search for the Dragon War, Zeref or anything that might be of use. However, this one was just like the other history books she had seen. It had only a paragraph or two of the war and its effects and even less about Zeref.

She groaned and threw her head on the table. Why was it _so_ hard to find information about that mage?

"Seems like you've had a pretty enthusiastic day, Shrimp."

Her head jolted up and she saw Gajeel's smirking face. She felt Lily plop into her lap, nodding to her in greeting before curling himself into it and closing his eyes. Her face was still slightly red from the embarrassment of being caught, but she pounted at him, causing his grin to widen.

"Don't start." She warned and Gajeel threw his hands up in attempts of a truce, but he kept chuckling much to her chagrin as he sat down beside her. Levy tried not to notice just how cramped up they were and how the dark scenario was so similar to some of the romance novels she had read.

However, he said nothing else, just leaned back where he was sitting. He didn't even begin to explain just why he needed to escape from the library earlier when they arrived. He probably didn't find what he was looking for, she thought.

Her gaze returned to her books and she clamped down another groan. She must've made a face since Gajeel chuckled lightly.

"No luck, huh?"

Levy decided not to snap back at him as she began eyeing the next book in the pile. She'd rather explain to him the whole situation.

"No. There's barely any information about the war. Even less about Zeref. I don't get it. This is supposed to be the information center of Fiore. So why-"

Gajeel turned to look at her when she stopped. That's when he registered her shocked face. He saw Lily opening his eyes and turning to look up to her as well.

"What is it?" The Exceed asked.

"I've been… I've been looking at it all wrong! The splitting of souls… The summoning of demons… The spell…" She began mumbling.

"Levy!" Her head snapped up when she heard her name. The Dragon Slayer rarely called her by it.

"What is it?" He repeated Lily's question.

She registered that Lily's paw tightened in her dress. She swallowed and the n looked at them both.

"I've been looking at the wrong topic. It's not Zeref, the person, which we should be concerned about. It's his book. The one said to possess half of his evil soul. We have to find information about the Book of Zeref."

Gajeel and Lily stared at her for a moment before nodding.

"So, we find intel of this book," Lily began, "What do you mean when you said the splitting of souls?"

"I'm… not sure. It's just what it says here. Maybe, if we find the spell…"

"A spell? Do you mean, one that uses Dark Magic and stuff?" Gajeel looked a bit alarmed before sharing a look with Lily.

"What is it?" She asked.

"When we arrived here… Gajeel and I sensed something bad. That's what we went looking around for today."

"Aren't they remnants of the culprit from Raven Tail?"

"No," Gajeel stated, "That bastard smelled different." He frowned.

"What is it?" asked Levy.

"What if they want to find this very spell?" Lily considered.

Levy's eyes widened as she started contemplating the possible scenarios. Maybe if they took this information to the master…

"Anyway, we're already stuck in this boring place aren't we?"

Both Lily and Levy turned to look at Gajeel.

"I guess it's better to just get this mission over with. It's not like we can't crush these fucking intruders, anyway."

A grin spread on his face, and Levy felt her confidence rising. That's right; Mavis trusted them to do this.

"Just promise me something, Shrimp."

She was surprised to see Gajeel's serious stare directed at her.

"Promise me you won't go running off and do something fucking stupid or so help me…"

Levy's mouth opened to retort, but then suddenly grinned as she got a better a idea.

"Are you worried about me?"

At least she got the pleasure of seeing a light pink dusting in the one and only Kurogane. Lily had conveniently closed his eyes, though Gajeel could see the damn cat's smile.

"The hell I am!"

"You are _so_ worried."

"No fucking way."

She giggled before resting her hand atop of his.

"We'll be fine. I trust you."

Gajeel sincerely hoped he averted his gaze fast enough from her fucking beaming smile as she went back to work.

* * *

Behind the Stacks, Crocus

The dark figure from behind the shelves sniggered. So, they could detect his magic… No matter. His camouflage spells weren't his forte but they were enough for now.

The marking on his right hand gleamed as he tightened his fist on the book he had in his hand. He opened it and laid his other hand atop of it.

"**Animale Chiamare: Topo**"

Three mice scattered onto the floor.

"Tell them," he whispered, "Tell them that these will find it. Tell them that these will find the _Megalo Vivlio_ since they will learn about the _Anagennisi Mageria._"

As the mice scampered off, he smiled, his Dark Guild mark gleaming in the moonlight.

* * *

Moonshine Resort, Akane Beach

After the discovery of the lacrima, the group decided not to tell the owners about it yet. Jellal stated that it was best in order to draw out the criminals. Gray was the one who suggested they find the origin, which would probably stop the lacrima to spread into the pipelines. After he said this, he disappeared and, after a while, Juvia thought it was time to take her long forgotten bath. It was the reason why right now she was getting ready for bed.

A bed a room away from Gray-sama's, which meant that in the middle of the night he could-

"I spoke to Gray."

Meredy's voice distracted Juvia from her swooning.

"I already gave him Ultear's note. It was probably meant for him to read as well, anyway." She chuckled grimly and Juvia went over her bed and hugged her tightly.

"Juvia is sure it was the right thing to do." She felt Meredy nod before returning the embrace.

"Well then," Juvia said after a while, "I'll say goodnight to the others."

Meredy snorted, "Please, you just want to see Gray shirtless before he goes to bed."

"Ahh, Gray-sama!" Juvia had hearts in her eyes, she was sure of it and Meredy laughed before pushing her out of their room.

Juvia made her way to the men's room nervously. What if Gray-sama was taking a bath and comes out in a towel? She had to stop swooning. She was doing this just outside the door.

She steeled herself and knocked. And waited… Until Jellal poked his head outside.

He cringed at her dejected look. "Um… Gray is not here."

He cringed even more as her eyes watered before turning steely.

"Are you lying to Juvia? Do you want Gray-sama for yourself? Are you another love ri-"

"Woah, woah," He lifted his arms in truce, "I think he's just outside the balcony."

Immediately, Juvia calmed down and opened her mouth in surprise.

"Right… Juvia is sorry. Juvia forgets that Erza has already claimed you as her own"

Jellal turned slightly pink. "Hey, wait, it's not… I mean-I"

"Thank you." And she began running to the balcony before Jellal could make another excuse.

Finally, she thought, as she stepped into the balcony and saw Gray-sama with his back towards her. She quickly made her way towards him.

"Gray-sama!" At her shout he flinched and crumpled a paper in his fist before turning around and giving her the coldest stare he could muster.

"What do you want?"

Juvia's smile faltered at his tone, but it didn't completely stopped her excitement, "Juvia just wanted to say goodnight-"

"Well you just said it. Anything else?"

"Well… um," she noticed the paper in his hand, "What is-"

"None of your business. Is. That. All?" he stressed the last words, but Juvia did not back down. Instead, she stared into his eyes for a moment before speaking.

"That's Ultear's letter isn't it?"

"Like I said, none of your business. Now leave." He closed his eyes as he heard some footsteps, but when he opened them he was surprised to see that Juvia actually got near him instead of away from him.

"It _is_ Juvia's business. It is Juvia's business because Gray-sama is hurting. It _is_ Juvia's business to help Gray-sama heal because Juvia lo-"

"Stop. Just stop."

He held a hand in front of her face, his eyes hidden by his hair.

"Why can't you just understand? Didn't you get what I said to you before? I'm. Not. Interested."

Juvia's eyes wavered for a second before meeting his gaze head on, causing him to wince.

She was Juvia 2.0, after all.

"Juvia does not care. Juvia will not give up. Besides, Juvia does not like seeing Gray-sama keeping it all in. It's bad for Gray-sama not to talk about it and-"

"Talk about _what_?" His tone had risen, when had his tone raised? "About Ultear's death? About the last connection I had with Ur? About how it's _my _fault that she died? Why would I talk about it to YOU? You had no family. No brothers or sisters. When you were little all you had was the rain since people avoided you because you caused it. How could you understand? When you were just so fucking moody to-"

She slapped him. Juvia didn't know why she did it, but it cut off what he was about to say. She could hear thunder rumbling in the distance, and she felt the tell-tale signs of raindrops falling on her hand as the tears welled up in her eyes.

"What the-"

"It's true!"

It caused Gray to shut up. He quickly spared a glance at the skies and winced. He probably will regret his words tomorrow.

"It's true that Juvia _doesn't_ understand. It's true that Juvia does not remember her family. It's true that the closest thing that Juvia had was Gajeel-kun. It's true that it's definitely not the same as Gray-sama's relationships," she felt the tears now, "But Gray-sama must've noticed. Gray-sama must've noticed how others worried about how others worried about him. How others cared about him. How Fairy Tail is also his family and that it WORRIES about him."

She gripped his arms as he stared at her in shock. The rain was falling freely now.

"Gray-sama… Gray-sama must understand. He must understand that Fairy Tail is here for you. That Fairy Tail understands your pain. That Fairy Tail wants to help you. And Gray-sama must understand that Juvia's feelings will not change because Gray-sama is the one who took the rain away."

"Juvia, I-" Juvia gave him a watery look, which caused him to pause, before she continued speaking.

"Gray-sama… It wasn't your fault."

She could feel him tensing at her words.

"How-"

"It wasn't Gray-sama's fault because Ultear did it to save human kind, to end the war. Gray-sama must understand," she looked at him directly, "That Gray-sama didn't cause this."

He could feel his knees giving way and Juvia went down with him. What was this he felt? Relief? Anger? He didn't know. He could feel the tears welling up as he fought them.

"But… She's still… dead and I… I couldn't… I didn't even spend enough time with her."

As he felt his throat choking, he also felt Juvia's arms enveloping him. She rested her head on his shoulder.

"Juvia knows. And Juvia's pretty sure that Ultear also wished that as well."

He gripped her arm fiercely, almost returning the embrace as the tears continued falling down his cheeks. Juvia didn't say anything else; she felt that she didn't have to, not anymore.

Around them, the rain became a soft drizzle before the clouds began dissipating, leaving them huddled together, soaked to the bone, in the moonlight.

* * *

Waas Forest

"I don't get why we need to sneak around. Can't we just pummel the demon?"

Lucy sighed at Natsu's grumbling. She understood that he wasn't considered to be a patient guy.

"Natsu, we have to see the identities of the summoners. I think that's why the demon keeps appearing and disappearing. Which means that if we don't defeat them, even if we manage to pummel the demon, it will return the next week."

"I get _that_," Natsu replied, annoyed by the whole situation, "I just hate waiting."

"We could see this as another Ninja mission, Natsu! Nin nin!" Happy said seriously, striking his traditional ninja pose.

Natsu chuckled and mimicked his pose while wrapping his scarf around his head. Lucy rolled her eyes, and yet couldn't avoid a small smile on her face.

Suddenly, Natsu straightened and Lucy yelped at his movement.

"Someone's coming," he immediately launched himself after the smell.

"Natsu!" Lucy groaned, "Let's go, Happy!"

"Aye!"

They started following the Dragon Slayer until he came upon the road. They saw a small figure wearing a cloak.

"Gotcha you little bastard!" He jumped and the figure looked startled to see him, so startled that he didn't even try to avoid Natsu's tackle.

The figure emitted the most girlish screech at Natsu's movement that Lucy thought that there must be something wrong with this whole scenario. Natsu managed to hold the figure's arms at the back, but it was only when the figure started yelling did Lucy figure out what was wrong.

"Natsu, wait that's not our-"

"Let me go, you stupid mage!"

Natsu released him in surprise when he recognized the voice and released him while quickly pulling back the hood… Only to meet with Fayol's angry glare.

"Are _you_ the demon summoner?!" Natsu asked, surprised.

"There's no way it could be him!" Lucy chided, "I think he just came here with another purpose."

"Probably," Happy landed beside Lucy, "He wanted to catch the summoners himself."

The three of them turned to look at Fayol as he gritted his teeth.

"Fine. Yes, I'm going to capture those bastards. Because I know you mages," he pointed at them with a knife he took out from his pocket, "I don't trust you, and you'll fail just like the others. Why? Because you rely on your stupid magic, to do your stupid work and your stupid guild-"

He yelped and Lucy saw that Natsu gripped his arm none to gently.

"Don't. Insult. Fairy. Tail."

"What the hell are you _doing_?"

At his yell, Natsu released his arm and stood up, making his way towards the forest.

"We should go, Lucy. The demon might make his appearance soon," he told her seriously.

"Ye-yes!" Both Happy and Lucy started making their way towards the forest as well, but they stopped walking when Natsu stopped suddenly.

"You know why we are here?"

Fayol looked at him blankly.

"It's because you are weak," Natsu continued, "And you were so weak you couldn't even protect your own family."

"Natsu!" Both Happy and Lucy exclaimed.

"But I… But I… I can do so much _better_ now! I can-" He winced as Natsu kneeled before him again.

"Right now, you can't defeat the demon. But you can still prove yourself to be strong. Do you know what a Guild really is?"

The kid turned his watery eyes up to Natsu's and shook his head.

"It's a family. A family that mages like us will _never_ stop to protect. What you _can_ do now is just that." He pointed at the kid's heart, "Show me that you have _that_ courage. Show me that you can bring your family to be as thriving as before and, just then, will you become strong."

And with that, Natsu stood up and made his way to Lucy and Happy, who had waited for him silently. Fayol just stared at him before jumping up on his feet and pointing at him with the knife once more.

"I'll show you!" he yelled, "I'll show you that I can be just as strong, no… even stronger than YOU!"

Natsu stopped walking before turning around and grinning at Fayol. "Can't wait."

**RAAAAAAAAAAAAAA**

The sudden roar and trembling of the ground made almost all of them loose their footing. Both Lucy and Natsu stared at each other before they understood.

"Shit. Let's go, Happy!" Happy grabbed Natsu and began flying in the direction of the noise.

"Fayol, return to the village!" Lucy ordered, before starting to run after them.

Hopefully they weren't _too_ late…

Natsu gritted his teeth as Happy flew as quickly as he could to the loud noises in the middle of the destroyed village.

"Here!" And he dropped down with ease only to see that the treasure the villagers had left was gone, and that the remains of the village had started to catch fire.

"Fuck. Were we too late?" He started looking for the demon frantically.

Suddenly, he spotted two hooded figures making their way towards the forest.

"Wait right there!"

The shortest of the figures giggled.

"Aww… Did the poor little Dragon lost his prey?"

A woman, Natsu guessed, although her comment pissed him off.

"Wait right there, you bastards! So, I can beat the shit out of you!"

"Not today," The taller figure said (a man's voice, Natsu registered) before he threw down something.

Natsu was suddenly surrounded by a smoke bomb, one that smelled so much of different chemicals that he quickly figured out that his sensitive nose was useless to pin point them.

"Damnit! Where did they go?!"

"Natsu!"

He whirled around to see Lucy stepping into the town. Running was definitely not her thing. But maybe… She might use one of her spirits to track these bastards. He was about to shout back at her when he spotted it.

He felt the footsteps first. Loud and making his insides lurch… The smell of death became unbearable, especially when coupled with the smell of burnt corpses. It was tall and had a humanoid figure, almost like that of a giant. A black giant, Natsu observed, with cracks and holes which glowed dark red and which oozed red liquid out of them. Magma? It's head had thorns and its eyes glowed red, his mouth opening showing his red tongue.

The thing screeched, before taking a deep breath and only then did Natsu snap out of his reverie. The way the demon was standing and the direction he was turning to…

NO.

His muscles tensed and he began running towards Lucy.

Not again. Not again. Not again.

He managed to tackle her and ignored her surprised yelp.

"Happy!" He yelled, but then he noticed that the cat, while he was flying towards them, was still too far away…

Natsu gritted his teeth. Think. _Think._

That thing probably spit fire. Fire laced with dark magic, that's sure, and he cringed at the thought of the effects it could have on his body. But as the demon opened his mouth, Natsu moved in front of Lucy.

He will not have it. He will not let her die again.

The demon emitted a screech and Natsu opened his mouth. He felt his magic kicking in as he saw the boiling magma shooting from the thing's mouth.

Come _on_. Any second now.

Natsu began hollowing his cheeks in preparation for swallowing the magma; he could already feel the familiar heat-

"**Dragon Slayer's Secret Art: Crystal Wall!**"

Both Lucy and Natsu gasped as a glass like wall struck up from the ground in front of them. The demon's attack hitting it and making a hissing noise at the contact, before rebounding.

The demon screeched before a bright light surrounded it, and Natsu could already feel its presence disappear.

"Guys!" Happy landed next to them sniffling, "You're alright!"

Natsu could feel Lucy sit down from the shock.

"How-" Lucy began.

But then a black cat ran it's way beside them. A _familiar_ black cat.

Happy gasped.

"The Exceed!" Natsu exclaimed, tensing, ready to go after it… until he saw that the cat activated its wings and landed right next to a figure at the top of the crystal in front of them.

Natsu stiffened in surprise. Since when… And more importantly, why didn't he _notice_?

"Hmph. It seems you managed to attract a small crowd this time." The Exceed's voice was silky.

Then, the moonlight shone on the figure as she spoke, "Oh _really_."

Natsu could detect that the figure's voice was sharp and that of a woman's but only when the moonlight shone on her did his eyes widen.

The woman was wearing boots and a dress that came mid-thigh, both a dark blue color. Her sleeves went halfway up her arms, the rest of the arms covered by gloves of the same color. She had her hand son her hips and her long black hair was tied in pigtails that whipped around with the soft wind.

It was her eyes that made him stiffen. A dark icy blue color that seemed to make the temperature drop even around him. Those, he thought, were eyes of a killer.

She was probably no taller than Lucy. She was curvy and yet looked far stronger than the spirit mage. Natsu could probably guess that she might be considered pretty if she didn't have a scowl.

But she didn't look soft and welcoming as Lucy, and he didn't know why she imposed such a familiar picture of dignity and pride…

_Like that of a dragon standing up to look at its prey._

Lucy came to stand beside him, and from the look on her face she probably came to the same conclusion on the woman's identity.

"Emily… Chrysdea…"

The woman narrowed her eyes at the mention of her name, before speaking to them, her tone sharp.

"And, just _what_ are you fucking kids doing to _my_ prey?"

* * *

**__****Animale Chiamare: Topo=**_Animal Summon: Mouse_

_****__Megalo Vivlio=__ Great Book_

_****__Anagennisi Mageria= __Rebirth Magic_  


* * *

**_Ah yes... My OC finally comes to the stage. It was about time hehe. I hope I'm describing her correctly, I already know her character background, but the image in my head is quite difficult to put on paper._**

**_AS for what happens in the chapter, i hope I got my translations right, feel free to correct me though since I can't say that I'm fluent in Italian or Greek._**

**_I believe that, apart from the appearance of Emily, we finally get to tackle the whole Gruvia problem. I don't believe that this would make them suddenly a couple, but I think that it is necessary for Gray to give her a certain degree of importance of his perspective... Kind of like what he did to Juvia by taking the rain away, now she helped him overcoming his depression. Of course, I'm actually basing this on the fact that I believe that a person mourns twice when a closed one dies. One time, when it happens, and the other time when you finally realize that she's not there anymore. At least, that's what happened to me._**

**_Anyway, hope you enjoyed the chapter! It took me a while and I can actually guarantee you the next one will be a bit shorter. But I felt that I needed to cover all these aspects in the story before moving on._**

**_Read, review, favorite, follow, anything is welcome :)_**

**_Thank you!_**

_Next chapter_

The Vision


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